Beetle Betsy

Normally I look forward to the summer months as I am an avid insect watcher/lover/photographer.  But this summer, which has been incredibly rainy and then was incredibly hot, seems to have been favorable for a particular species of beetle called an Oriental Beetle.  Not to be confused with the Japanese Beetle, this insect does not seem to harm foliage at all in its adult stage, but the larvae (white grubs) that it produces will chew the crap out of the roots of your grass, garden vegetables and ornamental flowers.

Japanese Beetle

Oriental Beetle

This is the first year that I have my own small garden outside my house.  I tried one last year at my parents' house but it is a 20 minute drive there and over 100 ft from the water source so it was difficult to properly tend to it.  Plus they don't have beetles there so much as they have horrible head buzzers, horse flies, deer flies, mosquitoes...not much fun.  I don't have those at my house.  My husband built me a beautiful raised bed and I planted some stuff in it.

I'm not quite sure what as I didn't pay much attention, but I'm fairly sure it is mostly cucumbers, parsley, a tomato plant, and cosmos.  As an added bonus I have a buttload of sunflowers growing in the back that the birds planted.

I first noticed that there was an excessive amount of beetles a few weeks ago.  I would walk outside and get attacked by them.  They do not bite or sting but will clumsily fly around your head and land in your hair or on your clothes and with their pokey little feet they are hard to get off.  If they land on your skin you will feel it but it does not hurt.  However it scares the crap out of my girls when one lands on them.  I decided to git-r-done.

I first went to Aubuchon.  They only had Japanese beetle traps, but I was desperate so I bought one in hopes it would trap both kinds.  I set it up and watched as Japanese beetles came from no where and fell in.

Japanese beetle trap

Japanese beetle on my flowers, right downwind of the trap and not seeming to care...after 2 rain storms it seems to have lost some of its potency.

  I previously had not seen any of those so it obviously is a strong attractant!  None of the Oriental beetles seemed to be able to make it into the bag though.

Next I tried Ace, then Lowe's, then Home Depot.  No one had anything for these Oriental beetles.  I called up the local agricultural store, L.D. Oliver Seed Company, and they had had them but were sold out and weren't going to get more until Friday.  It was Wednesday and I was really wanting to get these buggers gone before they decided to lay eggs all over the yard.  I bought a bottle of Bayer Grub Control and sprayed that on my garden dirt and on the lawn around it.

Friday came and I went to the Oliver Seed Company.  I was happy to see that they did indeed have the traps for this kind of beetle and happily paid my $9.95 for one.  The boy behind the counter said this was the first year they had carried these traps and they were selling fast.  I took it home and assembled it in the car.  I opened the door to the car and got the pheremone disk out, opened the bag, and put it on the trap structure.

Here is a short, crappy video I took:


BZZZZZT  BZZZZT BZZZZZZZZZZT

That was the sound I heard in my ears.  I looked around and these beetles were coming from every corner of my lawn and swarming around me and the bag.  As I held it beetles were falling into it.  I hadn't even put it on the hanger yet.  I set it down on the ground and tried to assemble the metal hanger (sold separately for $4.95) but the damn metal sleeves that hold the metal rods were too tight.  Cheap thing.  So I had to take it inside and shove a screwdriver into them and wrench them apart and then hammer the rods into the sleeves.  I came back out to a black cloud of beetles around the pheremone.  I picked it up, beetles clinging to my arms and hair and clothes, and pushed it all into the ground.  Instantly there was an inch deep of beetles inside the bag.

Assembled, and already attracting.  The round thing at the top is the pheremone.

  

In 1 minute this is how many there were inside...

I ran back to my car and drove to my parents' house where I was going to spend some of the 100°F afternoon in their air conditioning.  A wind was picking up which was blowing hot air around and it was miserably humid.  About 5 minutes down the road my A/C in my car quit on me.  It made a nasty burning plastic smell and then the compressor stopped working.  Dammit.  I shut it off and rolled down the windows.  My poor Autumn was in the back crying for alternate reasons. First she was too hot, then the wind was blowing her hair into her eyes and mouth and she wanted the windows up, then she was too hot again.  Poor thing eventually went to sleep.

When I left my parents' house 2 hours later and made it back home I was dismayed to see the beetle trap had fallen over in the wind.  The cheesy metal stand had come apart and there was a mass of horned up beetles writhing in one spot.

Spilled Beetles

 I had a horrible thought that perhaps I had just turned these beetles on and they would escape, fertilized and ready to lay eggs, making the matters worse than if I had left them alone in the first place.  I began plucking beetles from the ground and plopping them back in the trap.  But there were so many it would have taken me hours and it was so very hot outside.

That was yesterday.  It rained very hard last night and was insanely windy but the beetle trap stood up to it all and was still standing today.  I went out to check out how much was in there (at this point its actually FUN for me to be doing this.  I need a job.) and as I approached the bag I could hear scritch scratch scritch scratch sounds.  There was a good 2" or more deep pile of beetles in there.  Wow.

And the ground was still moving with more crawling in that direction.  I saw one actually fly and make it out of the bag so I realized that I should probably dump them out so that the pile can start over.  I got a gallon size ZipLoc bag.  The bottom of this trap has a handy zipper lock also so that you can dump it out and reuse it, unlike the Japanese beetle trap pictured earlier in this long post which you have to buy replacement bags.  I placed the open ziploc bag over the bottom of the trap and managed to unzip the trap enough for the beetles to start spilling out.  Yuck.  This is how many I got:

Most of what was in the bag

They are mostly still alive too.  Hopefully not for long.  I zipped the trap bag back up and set it straight again.  Then it rained really hard.  The sun came back out and when I checked on the trap (an hourly process for me at this point:  checking and plucking and tossing in more) there were several beetles flying around it again, more in the bottom, and more crawling up the grass trying to get in.  

I'm both interested to see how many more I catch by the end of the day, and horrified that there are so many of these pests in my yard!  I think I will go buy 2 or 3 more traps and set them around the perimeter of our condo property.  Then I get to check on and empty even more bags!  LOL!  Check out that Oliver Seed Co. if you are in Milton.  I had never been in there before but they seem to have good prices and all sorts of stuff for farming and gardening and they are always having a sale on something!

Ouchy Wah Wah

Here it is, 2:15am, and I am up blogging.   I am partially writing this blog so I can have a reminder to not be an idiot.

This is because something has given me a condition resembling a UTI but I'm pretty sure that its not a real one.  I've been in and out of the bathroom to pee about 30 times this evening and I'm sure I'll be going again in a few minutes.  I am prone to what is called bladder spasms.  I'm pretty sure they are caused by my diet, and I manage to keep them under control for the most part.  However, every now and then, I try something new in my diet and sometimes I have nights like tonight.  This is why I really do try to eat the exact thing every single day, or pick from an imaginary list of things that I know are compatible with my bad self.  I'm pretty sure I will not be sleeping at all tonight, which is going to suck royally tomorrow.

This episode I believe is caused by 3 factors:

Number 1-- I began taking a G.I. Health supplement powder (you mix it in a glass of water) that contains a rather large amount of Zinc (zinc-carnosine).  A very kind person gave it to me because she knows that I have also had trouble with anxiety and IBS symptoms and this supplement has many things that would help someone like me.  Until tonight I never knew...ANYTHING about Zinc except that it is a metal, it is shiny, and we need some to live.  I did not know that if you take more than 40 or 50 mg a day that you can actually poison yourself!  Now, I am sure that the levels in this supplement are within safe ranges for most people, but it does carry a warning for people with kidney issues.  It doesn't say why it can hurt those people, just not to use it.  Perhaps I have kidney issues that I was not aware of.  Anyhow, Google Search "Zinc poisoning symptoms".  It is mind blowing.  There is a class-action lawsuit against denture cream companies because they contain so much Zinc that people are dying from being slowly poisoned over many years!

  The symptoms I have been having in the 5 days of ingesting this supplement are:  

• extreme fatigue (ask my husband/kids.  Mommy is way droopier than usual).
• weakness
• I kept thinking something was wrong with our dishwasher because suddenly whenever a piece of silverware touched my tongue it tasted extremely metallic.  This is apparently a good way to test to see if you have too much of any metal in your blood.  
• headaches in the front of my head
• trouble speaking clearly (now this one is iffy, because I'm often a bumbling fool when speaking, but I was having trouble saying the words that I was thinking and that's a little odd)

I also noticed that I was very dehydrated by the end of the day and found myself doubling my water intake but still being thirsty.  That leads me to my next factor.

Number 2--When I don't drink enough water I easily will fall into a bad bladder spasm episode.  Usually I get a bad feeling when it first starts to happen and I can quickly chug a large glass of water and all will be well with the world.  That only works when its the only thing that is causing the problem.  I've been chugging water all night long and to no avail.  That leads me to the final idiot factor:

Number 3--I drink too much caffeine in one day.  I cannot and will not give up my morning coffee.  And when its chilly out I don't even think about drinking a soda.  But its been hot as hell here the past few days and I get that Diet Coke craving (yes, I know its poison, and probably not helping).  Today I gave in to the craving way too late in the day, around 4pm.  I was thinking it would be ok to have one since I was so incredibly tired that maybe it would help me stay awake so I could spend time with Kris after the kids went to bed instead of passing out snoring during Cheers. BAD IDEA.  If I could go back and slap myself...

Wow the whole time I have been typing this blog I have not had to pee.  That is a whole 15 minutes!  

Now, what the heck can I do about it?  I need to sleep!!

Everything I read says to drink Cranberry juice.  I knew I had bought some the last time this happened, which turns out to be over a year ago!  That means the juice is no good :(  So I had to dump it.  Really, I didn't want to drink it anyway because every time I do it makes me puke. To me, it tastes like licking a tire on a car that just ran over a skunk.  And I am not a puker.

I scoured the medicine cabinet for unused antibiotics (YES sometimes we don't use them all I admit it!) any kind would do.  Nothing.  I was a good girl and threw out all the old stuff.  I read that if you think you may have ingested too much Zinc you should drink milk.  So I did, and had an Oikos yogurt for good measure.  Then I decided because I am starting to get more and more pain that I would take 600mg of Ibuprofen.  So far I think that is the only thing that has actually helped.  If this is still going on in the morning I will of course see the doctor.  But true to form it has to happen in the middle of the ever-loving night when there is NOTHING I can do short of going to the ER, which is the last thing I want to waste their time on.  If I could hold it long enough I'd drive to the 24 hr grocery store three towns away and get some skunk juice.

Also see, Cystitis.  I have 6 out of 8 of those symptoms, but again it can be caused by diet.  Either way I see a trip to the Doctor's office tomorrow :(

Politically Annoying

Yesterday I received a large manila envelope addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Potvin" from the elementary "school" here.  I haven't been Mrs. Potvin since 2007.  I'm not going to say that the administration at the school is incompetent, but you would think that they would have looked at that GD paperwork that I just sent in for the FOURTH time due to their mishandling of paperwork outlining all of her family information!  You would think!!!

Today my panties are in a twist because when I opened this manila envelope, expecting yet another copy of that form that I just sent back, a stapled copy of the bullying and student conduct policy fell out accompanied by a confusing and vague form letter.  While happy for the change from redundancy I quickly felt a hot coal of irritation and anger growing in my squishy gut.

The gist of this letter is this (paraphrased of course):

"Your daughter may have been exposed to inappropriate student behavior on Feb 8.  We can't tell you anything about it due to our strict confidentiality policy, but here is a packet of common sense for you to go over with your daughter.  We put both prevention of harrassment and student discipline forms in there so you really just can't figure out which side of the tracks your daughter was on.  Due to that there confidentiality policy we have to try to confuse you to the extent that you might beat your kid just in case they were the bully.  Oh and please have your daughter narc out whoever and whatever happened if you get a chance.  Have a nice day (or not, depends on what you think happened),


PreK-2 Principal"

Wait, what?  This happened a week ago, my daughter never told me anything about it, and I received NO phone call about this incident that was important enough to send me a packet of crap about.  When I see the words "exposed" and "inappropriate behavior" I'm thinking someone showed her their thingy or they made her show them her thingy!!

I asked her this morning about it and she said "OH yeah Mom my friends and I were playing a chase game and Alex (a boy that is a known trouble maker in her class) punched my best friend Hailey in the face.  But it was an accident!  She didn't tell the teacher about it because she didn't want to have to go to the nurse's office."

Apparently the administration spoke to all the students involved as a GROUP.  This means that they treated both bully and victim exactly the same.  Oh, but its being investigated and they will contact me upon resolution.  YEAH RIGHT.  If I do nothing I bet I never hear of it again.

Just yesterday I was telling a friend that my neighbor thinks her 11 year old son does no wrong.  He's been suspended, sent home early, and issued warnings for behavioral matters.  But she says, "He is just with the wrong group of kids.  He didn't do anything wrong they just think he did." Yeah, ok lady.  Keep living in that fantasy world of yours and when you are bailing him out of jail you can tell that to the judge.

Here's what I think of my 7 year old daughter's personality from what I have seen over the years:

• Thinks a snapdragon is an insect and jumps 10 feet in the air when you tell her there is one near her.  Is afraid of most things that move.
• Gives her baby sister a bath and patiently washes her hair even though she's screaming and trying to kick her in the face.
• Cries when someone else is getting hurt.
• Cries when someone says "I hate you" at school even if they weren't directly talking to her.
• Cries for no reason except that she misses her _______________  (dad, aunt, grandparent, blankie, stuffed animal, etc.)
• Still has a blankie that she carries around the house.  I'm not going to take that away from her.
• Protective of her friends even when they tell her they want to kill her. (yes this happened just 2 weeks ago.  didn't get a note home about that one)
• Concerned that same friend who wants to kill her thinks she is half-vampire and doesn't believe in Heaven.  Prays for this friend.
• All the pictures that she draws include hearts, princesses, rainbows, and churches.  Doesn't look like typical serial killer artwork at least.

And here is what her latest parent teacher conference summed up as:
"Your daughter is one of my favorite students.  She is so well behaved, always quiet when she is supposed to be, considerate, cooperative, just an absolute JOY to have in my class" --2nd grade teacher

So you can see why I'm kind of confused here.  Does she have some kind of violent tendency? Am I pulling the wool over my eyes and seeing only innocence when there might be aggression?  I have absolutely NO idea.  That is how vague this letter was.

So, do I contact the school?  I have a WTF letter written in email and saved in draft that I'm not sure I should bother sending.  Would I be able to make any difference in the machine that is Political Correctness?  Why is the administration so afraid to call kids out for what they are?  Oh dear, the parent might remove their kid and homeschool them or send them to private school.  GOOD!  There are too many kids in that school anyway.  If I still had half my brain and more of an attention span than that of a flea I would try to homeschool.  But I know it would be a disaster.  And private school is upwards of $5000 a year PER kid on top of the insane school tax we already pay for this crappy school.

I just haven't had any good experiences with this school yet outside of my child's parent teacher conferences, which are always good news, but that is such a small part of the school experience.

From Tortoise to Hare in 60 minutes!

I don't know about y'all but I have a need for speed when it comes to my computer. We currently have three computers in the house. One, my husband's lap top, is about 6 years old and was refurbished when he got it. I no touchy touchy that one its so slow I would drop kick it in about 2 seconds and he would lose all his geeky science documents. Another is my teeny tiny netbook. Its great for Facebook, email, and can handle my 4 and 8 gig SD cards. This brings me to the third and final pain in my a$$: An HP Pavilion desktop from...2005? 6? Mom?? My parents gave me this computer and don't get me wrong, I am SO grateful to have a large computer to work with my photos.

HOWEVER!

It came with some baggage and I just never got around to unloading.

First, I have XP Home Edition. I don't know if other OS will fit into this but THAT'S WHAT GOOGLE IS FOR!!

Here are the issues I was facing:

1) It started up fast SEEMINGLY (I do believe that is a real word!) but then the hard drive would be chuttering away (totally not a real word) for a good 5 minutes after and it could only handle one process at a time. That means that if I'm editing in Lightroom I can't be surfing the web or even use Picasa (secondary editing program). The Task Master would not show any other program running that was eating up the usage so I could not figure out what the heck.

2) Every time I have tried to download any programs I am unable to save the programs to the C:\Program Files folder. Access Denied EVERY TIME. I mean, come ON!!! I am an "Administrator" and all so I should be in God Mode, right???

3) C: drive disk space was very limited. I knew this and just was too lazy to do anything about it!

Here is the morphine that took away my online pain:

1) I went to Start>Run and typed in msconfig and then clicked on the toggled for Selective Startup. Next I went to the Startup tab at the top. Now, there were about 30 different things that were running at startup in here! No wonder all that chuttering was aflutter!

Here's the thing though--you don't want to just start willy nilly unchecking crap! Your computer DOES need some of it. What I did before I touched ANY of them was go to Bleeping Computer and clicked on their tab that says Startup. In here is a search box. The best thing to do is write a list of all the startup items in the msconfig box on a piece of paper, and then search one by one on Bleeping Computer's site and it will tell you which ones to keep, which to uncheck, and which you need to make a decision about based on your needs. In my case, I do not own a printer so I unchecked all the HP printer driver stuff. Once you have whittled the checked stuff down and are satisfied, click on Apply and then close it out. You must restart your computer to see the changes...a good idea anyway.

2) For the program files issue it was a little more complicated HA! What I basically learned how to do is change ownership on a folder. Didn't know such a thing existed! There is a great article that I followed in the Microsoft Support forum for this task. It seemed to work...guess I'll find out next time I download King's Quest IV!!

3) I then went into my Control Panel>Add/Remove programs and ditched every single DVD movie maker, Scanner, WebCam, and Flight Simulator I could find, and also some programs that I would never, ever use. I only use this computer for photos and surfing the web and I only use 3 programs just about EVER.

After restarting yet again the computer now starts up with almost no grinding noises and I can run Lightroom AND Chrome at the same time, AND a bonus is that Lightroom is loading and exporting almost twice as fast as before which should cut down on the long hours I spend working on photos that most people will never see! Crap there goes my Me Time!!

I hope this was useful in some way...I also recommend Analyzing your C: drive (or whatever your main drive is) in the Defrag application. If you don't know where that is it is under Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools Defragging can make a huge difference especially if you are adding and deleting files often like I do.