Come birdies. Come eat the mosquitoes!

What fun to have mature trees on this property

After a rainstorm last Saturday, it seems as though hundreds of mosquitoes have hatched outside and some have decided to move inside our home, or surely around every possible entry way.

Our many bird feeders, feed storage and all the shepherd hooks were not available for such a long time, that is until now. They HAD to come out, they just did!

After being eaten alive the past two nights while we were sleeping, it's time to get serious about these blood suckers and the very fact there have been many west nile virus cases near to our area.

I'll be on the hunt for night time netting for over the beds so we don't have to spend many more sleepless nights waking to buzzing noises near our ears. Sleep deprivation isn't fun at all. We are tired, and itchy, and feeling prisoner in our home with all the attacks outside today. How silly this is, but we know the secret to surviving such things around here. Uh-huh we sure do!

Landscaping is not complete but they are up just the same

The Mosquito

Familiar whine in my ear
You settle on my forearm
Prepare to pierce my skin with your proboscis
I raise my hand to strike

Wait!
What if I let you complete the cycle?
You might feed the songbird
Who cheers my day.

Your larvae might feed the minnow
Who feeds the fingerling
Who feeds the pike
Who feeds me.

You might be a meal for the brown bat
Whose guano fertilizes
Tomatoes for my salad.

Smack!
But not today.

~ Deborah Fronteiria

Two helpful tips today to rid your homes of mosquitoes;

• 1 - Attract multitudes of birds to your yard by offering nesting boxes, bird feeders or certain gardening plants.

• 2 - Do what locals here do. Fill up a spray bottle with half water and half LISTERINE. You heard that right. Listerine! Did you think it was for your mouth? Not so. All the horse farms locally use this mix to spray on their horses, their clothing for trail riding and more. Suggestions have come to us from many assorted local folk, so we will soon be off to Costco to purchase a giant sized bottle for trying it out.

Half of our bird feeders are out, though they will have to be moved soon for the landscaping equipment to do their duty. And then, just like that hundreds of mosquitoes swarmed around us and bit our flesh to bits.

Wish our local birdies will come to eat them soon...