"I planted Holy basil and regular basil this spring. The honeybees and several different bees, wasps and butterflies love it. Along with lots of green spiders. Unfortunately, I've only seen the green spiders eat beneficials." Thanks for mentioning the basil, it is another excellent bee plant for the vegetable garden. As for spiders... my observations mirror yours. Spiders are indiscriminate killers - and they are just as likely to kill beneficial insects as harmful ones. They are often listed as "beneficial", but I would rate them neutral at best. I've also had some nasty bites from spiders, and those bites heal slowly, so I don't have a great love for them. Fortunately, the wasp population in my property is very high - including mud daubers. Some of them hunt spiders, and do so very effectively... so the spider population in my garden is very low. Only those which spin webs at night & hide during the day escape the wasps, which suits me just fine. Never tried Murphy's Oil. I've used insecticidal soap, sometimes as part of the following recipe. It was contributed by Jimster several years ago, and is a great starting point for formulating your own insect sprays: INSECTICIDE: A U.S.D.A. formula combining oil and soap is effective in killing soft-bodied insects. Mix 1 cup peanut, safflower, corn, soybean, or sunflower oil with 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing detergent. To make the spray, use 11/2 teaspoons of the oil-detergent mixture for each cup of water. As I mentioned above, I've tried several different variations of soap spray, sometimes with oil or alcohol. Since soap spray primarily works by blocking insect respiration, I even used sugar as an additive, when I was trying to kill cucumber beetles. Figured that would really clog their spiracles, and it seemed to help. Molasses might be even more effective, provided you can get it to dissolve. The advantage of using insecticidal soap (such as Safers) is that it is potassium based, and will cause less leaf damage. You can also use dish soap or baby shampoo, which is what I normally use. But in stronger concentrations (which may be required, depending upon what pest it will be applied to) there may be some leaf damage if the spray is allowed to remain on the leaves. Provided you are just targeting small areas, that is no big deal... but if spraying young plants, or covering a larger area (such as a squash bug infestation) then the spray should be washed off when it has done its work. Sucking insects die pretty quickly, you could rinse the leaves off after 15 minutes or so. For beetles, you just need to watch to see how effective the spray will be... it's possible a second spraying might be necessary. Beetle larvae are easier to kill than the adults, which can be remarkably resistant to soap spray... they will be temporarily paralyzed, but slowly recover. Cucumber beetles are a great example of this, they are pretty hard to kill. You really need full body coverage when spraying beetles, and a little alcohol in the mix will prevent them from flying away while you give them a good soaking. When trying out a soap spray the first time, observe its effect on the target insect. It's worth mentioning that while soap sprays have little to no no lingering toxic effect, they will kill most insects they are sprayed on. I've used the alcohol spray in my previous post to kill yellowjackets, it will knock them right out of the air. If bees or other beneficials get sprayed, it will kill them too.

By far, the best succes I've had is with a have-a-heart type trap. I place the trap along an open run against a wall (ex. up against your house). I don't use any bait at all. The chipmunks just walk right through the trap and get caught. I've caught 35 chipmunks in 30 days and then no more (i had caught most or all of them in the area). i can catch 4 per day at times if i really keep checking the trap. this works for me every time ive tried it. if you dont catch one for a few days, move the trap to a different wall. i just kill the boogers, but do what you like with them. you may have to do this every few years to keep the population down.

Hi Tammy, I ABSOLUTELY agree. Using a rodenticide is inhumane, but the risk of secondary poisoning is almost certain if one is used. The risk is not only for wildlife, but possibly for pets, not only when they put the dead animals in their mouths, but also if they find and consume the rodenticide, which has an attractant added. It causes the blood not to clot, which causes suffering and is often irreversibly fatal. I had chipmunks nibble some of the flowers off my newly planted roses and I discovered something that has happened unfailingly since! They only test the flowers for a day or two when the rose is newly planted! I'm not sure why they do it (testing for palatability?), but the behaviour has passed quickly and they haven't shown any more interest. Thank you, so much, for your kind & wise comment, Tammy Arnold!

This is how i see it. This forum is to educate and discuss,perhaps this should go to the discussion side,but,there are those out there,who,do not know that chippies will gouge out their own eyes to stop the burning sensation from the red pepper.So, some may find this information to be very helpful,as no one really wants to be cruel to animals.We have all done things in our life,that,later, we found out it was the wrong thing to do,therefore,we change what we were doing,right? When you know better,you do better. I have had red pepper in my eyes when canning,and believe me,you do want to gouge out your eyes,so,if one does this ON PURPOSE,then, it is cruelty to animals. We do,as Lainy said, all need to learn to coexist with creation. I do not own,all the hosta i have in my yard, i may have bought them with money,but,i am only the caretaker of them,they will become some one else's when i am gone,it is my responsibility,and great joy to have them for awhile.The same with chippies and other living things. We have a pond,there was a time that i was furious with the coon getting into my pond,but,hey,they only do what is natural to them, and they were here first, so i learned to do better,and accept them,we live in harmony,and it is nice,fun actually. I was at my neighbores one dy last year,she feeds the chippies,we were sitting on her porch,and the chippies actually climbed up my pant leg,over my shoulders,to get to her and some sunflower seeds she was feeding them,it was totally awsume.They very gently took the seed from her,way cool!!!!! Carol