rbeagan, I don't have answers, but you would be wise to have some Benadryl on hand. I am allergic to ants,little ones!! & spiders, the tiny cream colored ones we are now getting, wasps, yellow jackets & honey bees. Benadryl has worked for all these things but bigger critters require careful watching for reactions even days later if I don't keep up with the Benadryl. Been in hospital about 5 times, had desensitizing shots but still needed shot at hospital after that. I always have reaction right away- fireman said watch yourself for several days because you may be wrong- I've seen it, he was right. I should have taken 2 Benadryl from the beginning as it's a toxin & keeps building up in your system unless you knock it completely out. According to my "Ortho Home Gardener's Problem Solver book, yard centipedes in garden are good thing, eat lots of bugs; indoor ones are not so good can spray with allethrin or tetramethrin especially along baseboard cracks. Try to remove damp places close to house, piles of compost & moist areas are their favorites, guess that would include any leaks in basement or from toilet or behind washer etc. Hope this helps a little. If you used chemicals then you would need to scrub it off after it killed centipedes so safe for kids & pets. I have some boric acid powder(Roach powder) & it kills silverfish along with ants & roaches, might try that)(my dad used boric acid mixed with water for an eye wash yrs ago. Not too toxic if you can put it in your eye!Might try Borax washing powder if you have any! Jan

Yuck! I occasionally see them in pots or under pots that are outside. I've never seen one inside or in the GH and I hope I never do! I had a problem with a bag of soil from HD yesterday. I needed a bag of soil in a pinch and the nursery where I usually get my soil wasn't open so I ran into HD. It was a little 8 qt sealed bag of Jiffy potting mix. I didn't notice any holes in it but when I cut it open a bunch of fungus gnats swarmed out! I quick tossed the bag outside into the frigid cold. I'm not going to use it for my potted plants but will use it to ammend the garden soil. It's not worth going back to the store for $3. Karyn

Decades ago, someone planted kudzu on our farm, and on thousands of other farms throughout the American South, to combat the erosion that had resulted from generations of improper farming practices. I'm not sure of the exact year kudzu was introduced, probably ca. 1900, or possibly earlier than that. I seem to recall reading that kudzu was a star attraction at the Great 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia. At any rate, we all know that vigorous Oriental vine has swept the South during the following century. The vigor of ivy and wisteria pale in comparison to the vigor of kudzu. We fight kudzu, Japanese honeysuckle, wisteria, and ivy on a yearly basis, but, simultaneously love, enjoy, and respect these exotic vines--akebia, or violet vine, too. Gardening is a never-ending struggle. There are successes; there are failures. _C'est la vie._ Over the years, I've made my peace with these and other vines. At present, I'm allowing kudzu to have its way with the plot of ground that includes our septic tank drainage field. It grows luxuriantly and forms undulating waves of lush, large-leaved greenery for months on end, with beautiful, fragrant wisteria-like racemes of purple blossoms in late summer. This sea of green provides an above-ground canopy for the groundhog, or woodchuck, colony that lives underground in a maze of tunnels. The groundhogs are kudzu connoisseurs (sp.?) who relish the leaves as a dietary staple. A bamboo grove provides a fine backdrop to the kudzu "lawn." No mowing required.

You are more in left field than you might think. Your neighbors are pushing you that direction. Unless you know of a specific drainage issue you're having, then don't bring in any more topsoil. Topsoil always changes your drainage. What you don't want to happen is to change it from good drainage to poor drainage. With a brand new home the builder likely left you with a perfectly profiled and draining landscape. That means the soil begins about 4 inches below the sill plate of the house and slopes away from the house for about 10 feet at least to a depth 6 inches further below the sill plate. It also means all the water drains toward the road or an official drain on your property. If you or your neighbors believe there might be a problem with the ability of the existing soil to maintain healthy planting, that can be fixed. Bringing in new topsoil means you have to test that soil instead of the old soil. It does not automatically fix anything. If you want a soil test, now would be a fine time. The soil test will fix the chemistry. Adding organic fertilizer will help fix the biology. Then growing grass and plants will further help the biology. After some months of growing stuff, your soil should be much improved over whatever it is now. Actually your weeds are secretly helping improve your soil's health. You have a lot of prep work in front of you before the grass gets delivered. You need it all done first. Don't let grass sit around on pallets or on the truck waiting for you to dig the sprinkler system. Start by NOT rototilling. Rototilling will not do whatever you think it will and it will ruin your existing soil structure. Your existing structure is still figuring itself out, so don't monkey with it. Sod will go down directly on the soil as is once the weeds are killed and raked away. Mow the weeds and kill them with Roundup spray once. Then start watering 2x per day to moisten the soil and try to grow new weed seeds. Water like that for a week. Then spray any new weeds that start to grow. Then you can do your plumbing. When you take soil out of the trenches, ALL THAT SOIL THAT CAME OUT GOES BACK INTO THE TRENCHES. Do not make the amateur mistake of leveling the tops of the trenches. There should be a mound on top of each one so that soil can settle back down to level with the rest of the soil. Otherwise in 2-3 years you'll see your trenches reappearing as the fluffy soil settles. Then you can put down your new sod. After the sod goes down it should be rolled with a water fillable roller to ensure the bottom of the new sod touches the top of the old soil. Roots will not grow down through the air to reach the soil below. You don't need to aerate. You are starting with newly profiled surface, so it should be relatively soft. Furthermore, aeration does not do what you think it does. At this point I'm not sure it does anything, so give us your reasons for wanting to aerate and we'll probably suggest something else. If any of this gets delayed, keep in mind that mowed weeds look like a lawn. Just keep them watered and mowed and you can push this project into fall if you want to. I just bought a house last summer. It's 90% weeds, so I can sympathize. Here is something I put together several years ago to help people like you. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.