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Snakes generally hang out where they can find food and shelter. To discourage them, you need to remove both incentives. Blocking out the porch is a good first step. You also need to remove any brush or wood piles, or anything in the yard that looks like a home to a snake. If you have a fence, keeping the grass cut short around it is a good idea. If you ...
9
Your strawberry and veggie patches are almost done for the year where you live, so it seems to me it would be best to tackle them next spring. For now, I would cut down the weeds as close to the ground as possible, but not worry about getting rid of them altogether.
In the spring, when the strawberries (and weeds) start coming back, you'll be able to hand ...
8
Read the label of the product you are using. The label will state a re-entry interval. Without the label we don't know what is in the specific spray you are using, so we can't give a proper answer.
8
Grafting is an old technique where two plants are joined.
The idea is to take two varieties with different properties (think: strength) and combine them. For fruit trees, that would be:
a "rootstock" (aka rootsystem, sometimes stem) that ensures stability, good nutrition and determines the final size of the tree (think dwarf, for example) and
a "scion" (...
7
2,4-D: 10 days, up to 333 in wet areas.
2,4-D degrades fairly quickly in soils (half-life about 10 days for acid, salt and ester forms), with microbial degradation considered to be the major route in the breakdown of the chemical in soil.It is, however, relatively persistent in anaerobic (low oxygen) aquatic environments (half-life ranges from 41 to 333 ...
7
Chop the carrots up, just to make sure. They're most likely holes left by larvae of the carrot fly, and they may long have left and turned into flies. Even if you do inadvertently cook one in the soup, consider it an extra bit of protein, it won't harm you, although if you're vegetarian, you might want to slice them quite finely to make sure.
6
The MSDS lists three active ingredients, and another product, Bonide BK-32 has the same formulation (active ingredients and proportions).
Bonide BK-32's instruction booklet includes the following notes in various portions of the booklet:
Do not allow people (other than applicator) or pets on treatment area during application. People and pets may enter ...
6
Urine from healthy dogs (and humans) is sterile on leaving the body. It can, however, encourage the growth of existing bacteria: so these you would have been exposed to anyway.
Faeces are not sterile at all and fresh faeces from pretty much any animal can be very harmful to humans. Dogs frequently carry parasites which are easily transmitted to humans and ...
6
Yes, your peppers will be safe to eat. the only chance of contamination is if soil from your planter splashes onto the fruit, but they can be washed, and soured soil isn't much higher in human pathogens than healthy soil is.
Checking for good drainage is always a key component to container gardening, (any gardening, actually, but most problems cropping up ...
5
If your concerned about how chemicals might leach into the soil over time you may want to take this to the chemistry stack exchange.
I'll just say that unless I'm talking to someone who truly understand the chemicals within the sealant, I would not accept their recommendation unless it was a warning. So, as in the game of knights and knaves you are bound ...
5
Depending where you are, you often have a minimum burial depth, which in my area depends on how you protect the cable. Pouring concrete around/over it reduces the depth it needs to be buried to.
As for the digging, it depends on the amount of trench and you.
Step zero - contact the local "call before you dig", "dig-safe", "blue stake" or whatever the ...
5
We get copperheads here in central NC. To discourage them, I do not allow wood or brush piles to accumulate on the property. I use a mulching mower to munch up fallen leaves in the woods where people are likely to walk, as well as on areas surrounding the house. This eliminates cover prized by these fang-bearing pests. Use this technique under the tall ...
5
Trouble now or trouble later would sum up the answer.
Dig the tree up and set back it's growth by a few years or take your chances that there will be substantial root damage later if the lines have to be relaid.
Where I live cable and phone companies have a distressing tendency to bury their lines anywhere but usually close to the surface. It's not like a ...
5
Have you tried? Basically a good, sharp chainsaw will pretty much chew through nails and wire embedded in timber.
That doesn't mean you want to do it!
You want to ensure your saw avoids contact - even briefly - with metal obstacles in your wood. Because such contact will very very quickly blunt your saw. And if you value your time at all, you don't want ...
5
It's Parasola plicatilis, previously known as Coprinus, common name pleated inkcap. These are delicate mushrooms with a short lifespan of 24-72 hours - nothing much to worry about, they are saprobic, a decomposer mushroom usually found in grassy areas or sometimes forest edges, but there is some suggestion they might possibly have psychoactive properties. ...
4
The algae is there because of the dim lighting and moisture. It will not harm the concrete. In some cases, it provides an area for moss to spawn, which can hold in moisture, but in most cases, it's harmless (except aesthetically).
At my place, it's shady enough that over half the foundation gets a layer of this algae on it yearly, so it's a regular chore ...
4
Having checked the question on Pets.SE, you seem to want to know when it will be safe for rabbits to graze the treated area. As with all liquid lawn weedkillers, once the spray or solution has dried, it's safe for animals and children to use the lawn, though 24 hours elapse is safest. For grazing animals though, it is not safe if that is their only food ...
4
You have to call the utility to get a locate on the lines. Every electrical utility can have different standards.
Practically speaking, if you gently hand dig you should not have a problem. If you do so you take all the potential risk for accidents and mishaps so this is why I recommend using the free locate services that many utilities offer.
Edit:...
4
It's a miracle so many of us survived childhood. I drank from hoses all the time, and I've lived to tell the story. Even so, it's not a safe practice.
As you know, there are several "drinking water safe" hoses out there. Using a reel, as I also do, is efficient, but does little to prevent the growth of bacteria in the residual water left in the hose. ...
4
I don't think there's anything that can be added to the heap to deter snakes, and whether the snake that's been seen is harmless or not, others which are possibly harmful may be attracted too, for the same reasons. You describe your compost as 'cold dead leaf' - if you are saying the entire contents are just dead leaves (not added at the green stage ...
4
It is not harmful to get some 'dust' in your lungs, sporadically. Your lungs will remove it via mucus, like you have noticed.
It becomes dangerous, when it becomes chronic instead of sporadic. So every day, or during a day job (think of mine workers, or smokers).
Also when the compound is carcinogenic then it becomes dangerous, but as far as I know ...
4
Composting is an aerobic process. In a sealed container you will get anaerobic decomposition, which usually produces a horrible-smelling slimy mess, not what is normally described as "compost".
3
To add on to what Tea Drinker says, which is what happens on contact with metal, I don't ever use a chainsaw without wearing goggles, a helmet with mesh visor, protective chaps, heavy-duty gloves (make sure they don't go up past your wrist, or they will be easy to catch onto), and tight-fitting heavy-duty long sleeve shirt. I've never had any accidents. I ...
3
I own property with a lot of poison ivy, I first discovered it by triming brush and found myself standing in a field of it. I have been using tecnu for many years and have not gotten the poison ivy rash. I take a bath with it. The hard part is washing it off with cool water. Tecnu is also good for fire ant bites. I buy my tecnu from Gemplers in the 32 oz ...
3
I've planted right over the top of mine, and many people in my neighborhood do. For my plantings near the lovely green box, I hand dug down about a foot and never saw any sign of wires. For the foundation plantings I put in near my house, I accidentally unburied a pvc pipe with wires that was about 2 inches under the surface. Since I was digging with a hand ...
3
This is white fly. Instead of spraying I'd use a dip. NEEM is pretty much similar to your Baby Bio? Use a paper plate slit once from edge to center, place on the top of this pot. Mix NEEM as labeled into a 3 gallon container, turn the plant upside down and swish in the solution. Splash a little on the top of the soil. Do your have other houseplants? ...
3
when I first turn it on in order to water my plants and such, the water seems fizzy or foamy for about twenty seconds each time (well, once a day or so).
Nothing to get excited about. Dissolved gases in water that's cool since it's been in the water mains underground coming out of solution as the water warms up sitting in the hose.
You can see exactly the ...
3
Could be a Mycena, Amanita, maybe others, I'm not an expert so I'd need to have a closer examination and a spore deposit to give you a real ID on the mushrooms. The mycelium is in the mix digesting partly decomposed organic matter. the mushrooms you saw are just the fruiting bodies and do not represent the lifespan of the fungus, which is probably still ...
3
That absolutely is not sumac or poison ivy. It's got a dogwood looking leaf on it. Look above this plant and see what type tree is growing over it. It's possibly some type tree seedling.
3
If working with organic soil mixes that include compost you need to work outside preferably with any wind blowing the contents away from you. If working inside you need to wear an approved antibacterial mask. A high percentage of compost available in various markets contains legionella and I know of several people who have contracted legionella pneumonia in ...
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