Ticks live through a laundry experience.

There was a disturbing report from the Agriculture Research Service (USDA) last fall concerning ticks. One of the entomologists, John Carroll, found a live lone star tick on the agitator of his washing machine. He experimented to see how the lone star tick and the deer tick-the one that carries Lime Disease- would survive in different water temperatures and detergents.

He bagged up nymphs of both species of ticks and ran them through different settings in the washing machine. Almost all of both species of ticks lived through all of the temperature settings and most of the detergents in the washing machine.

The dryer was a different matter. They all died after an hour of tumbling in a dryer set on Hot. Tumbling with no heat had no effect on them. (Perhaps it only made them dizzy.) His recommendation is to use a repellent on your skin and clothes when you will be in tick-infested areas. Launder the clothes you wore immediately in hot water and dry them in the hot dryer cycle.

Buddleia Strawberry Lemonade®

Most butterfly gardens consist of plants with nectar and bright colors to coax these beautiful creatures to come and sip. Their other needs should be met, too, if you want to keep them in your neighborhood. Otherwise, they will have to go looking somewhere else for places to lay their eggs.

Granted, caterpillars are voracious eaters and are not what we would call attractive. They are sprayed and Bt-d to death in most gardens. If you could plant some extra food plants that the larvae could munch, you would be doing the butterfly population a good turn.

Butterflies that live in the different areas of the country will have differing plant needs for raising their young. This website has wonderful information for the United States and Mexico: http://butterflywebsite.com/articles/npwc/butterflychecklist.htm

Let your children do the research. Involve them this way in something they can do at their computer and then lure them outdoors to help make the butterfly habitat. Let them also find information on the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. It is a fascinating subject.

These trees serve as nurseries for caterpillars: birch, poplar, willow, dogwood, and fruit trees. Viburnum and spicebush are a couple of host bushes. Caterpillars will also defoliate turtlehead, daisy, hops, snapdragons, and hollyhocks and in the vegetable/herb patch, they will chomp parsley, dill, fennel, and rue.

Probably one of the best-known nectar plants for adult butterflies is the butterfly bush. Choose from many colors and sizes. A yellow form, Buddleia ‘Honeycomb’ is a large bush, getting 8-12 feet tall and almost as wide. Buddleia ‘Purple Emperor’™ is a new British variety you can grow in containers. Buddleia davidii Strawberry Lemonade® has deep pink blossoms atop creamy variegated leaves. There is even a miniature that does not need deadheading (dead flowers cut off), Buddleia davidii ‘Blue Chip’.

To complete your butterfly habitat, locate your nectar plants out of the wind. Put a large stone or two in the sunshine as a resting place. And, develop a shallow mud puddle for butterfly "puddling." Eric Grissell says, in his book Insects and Gardens*, "Butterflies love to suck moisture from mud--perhaps they are the pigs of the insect world."

I hope you and your family will experience the beauty of a host of butterflies floating through your garden.

*Insects and Gardens, Eric Grissell, Timber Press. 2001.

---Posted by Coach Anne, April 9, 2008---

QUESTON:

Insects have come flying out of the soil I used to start my annual seeds. What are they and how can I get rid of them?

ANSWER:

These are little soil gnats. They are prolific little insects, continuing to lay eggs in the soil with new batches constantly hatching out. They are annoying but don't do any real harm.  They feed on the humous in the soil. To rid the pots of them, work diatomaceous earth into the topsoil.  It is an organic product made up of minute fossils.  It cuts up the little critters as they work up through it.

In its 10th annual awards ceremony in 2007, Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) announced that Fiskars was a winner of the prestigious Eagle award for their efforts to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. The PowerGear® Fiskars line has also received the Arthritis Foundation® Ease of Use Award.

DRA, a leading national disability law center, presented Fiskars with the Eagle award in the category of Universal Design, noting that the company has created numerous tools that aim to give better access to popular pastimes such as gardening.

"For Fiskars," the DRA says, "the principals of universal design mean a tree pruner that can be used with less than one-third the pressure required for a typical garden tool…and many other garden tools and accessories that make it easier – and in some cases, possible – for people with arthritis, carpal tunnel disorder, and other problems with hand strength to live their lives with greater ease."

Visit http://www.fiskars.com/ for more information. An interesting tidbit: Founded in 1649, Fiskars is one of the oldest companies in the world.