Living in the boonies

where you and your chickens, dogs and cats are the only livestock for acres and acres means that every time you step outside, hunting pests zero in on you for the attack.....mosquitoes and flys being the most vicious......

You have to get creative unless you want to carry a bottle of chemical pesticides around with you, or spray yourself and your fur and skin kids with Deet every time you walk out the door.....and since we're attempting to go Green around here, that's not something we're too keen on......

We've found a few ways to combat the pests as naturally as possible....the chickens are helping to control a lot of the insects in the gardens;



during certain seasons we tuck bounce sheets into our back pockets and the necks of our shirts to keep the gnats away from our eyes and noses, when outside, we burn citronella oil in torches tucked here and there to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and we hang these beauties all over the place.........

Something about the sun sparkling off the water and the gentle movement of the bags in the breezes that flow in from the fields bedazzle the flys and cause them to stay away......



the chicken coop, a natural place of attraction for the flys, benefits greatly from these sparkling, swaying bags. The back door requires almost as many bags as the coop does......and our veggie gardens are less fly invested as well after hanging the bags.....



the water evaporates rather quickly so about every four days I have to refill the bags but the effort is worth it.

And this is our experiment for this year....these are called mosquito plants.....or citronella plants...we purchased four of them to hang around the gazebo and hot tub.....the jury is still out on whether or not they'll help to repel mosquitoes.....I'll let you know.