Drew, I emailed you directly about the HIV-related stuff in the interest of keeping the forum from going too off-topic (although I guess that happens all the time). In terms of the virology and not specific to HIV (thus relating to plant viruses) I did want to address a couple things. First, you are right that replication rates are fast. Viral generation times are on the order of hours to days (bacteria can be faster--20 min or so) but the number of viruses generated in each generation is millions (so very high rate). In fact viral load can be in hundreds of millions to tens of billions per infection. This effectively means that for some highly mutating RNA viruses (like HIV), every single nucleotide is mutated thousands if not millions of times over in each infected individual. So as you said the ability to evolve isn't an issue. This is also one of the reasons effective vaccines are difficult to develop. The reason why the process of a virus adapting to a non-pathogenic form takes such a long time is that the less virulent form must out-compete and displace the more virulent form. For most pathogens, there is an equilibrium between the ability to transmit between hosts and the level of disease caused. Too bad of a disease usually causes reduced transmission (like acute death or sterility doesn't allow the pathogen to propagate); however often the ability to transmit requires some of the pathology (for example coughing/sneezing/runny nose helps spread a disease). To displace a virulent pathogen, the less pathogenic form needs to render the host less susceptible to the more pathogenic form. For many viruses one subtype does not prevent subsequent infection with another subtype. The common cold is a great example of this. The virus is constantly changing and you can get infected hundreds of times over the course of your life. Another big issue is zoonotic infections where the virus infects multiple species. What is less virulent (or more adapted) in one host species can hop over to another and cause horrible disease (I'm thinking bird flu here but the bee/plant virus may be another good example). I really don't try to make convenient arguments for thing. If things I say are conflicting there is usually a reason but I appreciate having them pointed out as I don't want to come across as being biased. ryan

I would try to kill 2 birds with one stone. A once-a- year treatment of wooden structures is often recommended. I have used these products on fences and sheds. I have often thought that if I were an insect, I would not want to hang around woodwork so treated. The insect is considered to be beneficial except in cases like you describe. Placement of the treatment is critical if you want to protect the deck, beneficial insect snd water supply. I am quite sure that it can be done but it does require a little bit of interesting investigative work. And, just in case you need it, a little bit of good luck also!

Larry, I have no idea if it is wise or not, but I do it anyway. I am a sucker for any living creatures that might be hungry in winter. We put out deer corn and other grains for the deer all winter long, and have a regular resident herd who lives back deep in the woods and comes up here close to the house to eat. If I am late putting out the food, they stand on the edge of the woods and "scream" and holler for me to come put out the food. If we are gone and return home after dark, the deer are standing in the pasture near the feeding area, but on the other side of the fence in the neighbor's pasture, waiting for us to get home and feed them. Sometimes when we are gone, they come and look in the windows, and we know this because they leave their tracks in the ground outside the windows. I also put out little piles of henscratch and sunflower seeds for the ground-feeding wild birds and rabbits, and keep various bird feeders full year-round. The bird feeders don't get a lot of visitors (except for possums and raccoons) during the summer months, but the birds still spend hours a day hanging out in the bird feeder areas (near the gardens!) eating bugs. Even turtles and other small animals come and eat bird seed that falls from the feeders and eat at the small piles of bird seed that I put out alongside the driveway for the rabbits. We also have all kinds of berry-bearing plants like purple winter creeper and possumhaw holly that provide the wild things with berries for many weeks in winter and early spring. I noticed years ago that bees would come to a hummingbird feeder in winter if I put out fresh food in it pretty regularly. (I have to remember to bring them inside or empty them out during freezing weather so they don't freeze and crack.) When there's nothing in the feeders, the bees spend a lot of time on the ground at the piles of cracked corn and hen scratch that I put out for the wild birds and rabbits. I don't know if they are eating the corn and other grains or what, but they'll stay there for hours. We always have tons and tons of bees, even when our nearest gardening neighbors are telling me they have none, and I don't know if that is related to us having something for them to eat, or if our property just offers them good housing options. On warmer days earlier this week, I saw bees, flies, lady bugs and wasps flying all over the place while I was outside using the mower/grass catcher to chop up leaves and collect them to use as mulch. I even came across a few grasshoppers, but I wasn't happy to see them. It probably helps that I still have about a dozen flowering plants in containers for them: Laura Bush petunias (cold hardy for me down to about 8-10 degrees), brugmansias, edible and ornamental pepper plants and two tomato plants. All the plants get visited daily pretty much as soon as I open the garage doors and bring them out into the sunshine. Despite cold nights, the tomato plants had new blooms on Thursday and I 'thumped' them with my fingers to encourage fertilization. I am sure the bees must have their own food stored away for winter, but they sure do come out and forage for whatever they can find or warmer winter days. Our last fall-blooming wildflowers usually finish up in November and the earliest winter ones don't start blooming until mid- to late-January, so I suppose the bees are looking for something to help keep them going through that time when there's nothing native in bloom. We have henbit in the yard that sprouted early this year....in September when the remains of Hermine brought us 9" of rain over 2 or 3 days....and that henbit is going to bloom any day now, which will be a treat for the bees. We have had a lot of warm days here so the winter weeds are growing pretty vigorously, although they'd be doing better if some rain would fall. Dawn

You never want to seal any carpenter bee gaps until the late fall. Leave them all open until then. Otherwise if you seal them in they'll burrow another one to get out, especially if you didn't spray them with something that has an immediate knock down effect. They first appear in April or May, whenever temps go above 70 degrees. This was a long and really cold Winter so I know I didn't see any until closer to June. They dig tunnels and lay 5-6 eggs in each one for the first few weeks. Then you'll see them occasionally throughout the rest of the summer in the early mornings or evenings when they are leaving early to get food and then bring it back at the end of the day to store in the tunnel for their larvae. Activity will tend to die down after a couple months when the original generation of adults dies off. Then in the fall the larvae will come out to feed one last time and then go back in the hole to hibernate through Winter. You want to leave the holes un-sealed until then because you are going to treat them with a dust insecticide such as 7dust from Home Depot. Puff it into each hole you can find and then just leave it alone. This is a way more important step than attacking one bee at a time. The adults will pick it up and carry it inside with them and then the larvae will touch it and die when they come out in the fall. Patch the holes in September or October when you know for sure that everything in there is dead. Next year get some traps and put those up, and have an exterminator put a 90 day residual strength repellent spray on all exposed exterior wood. Be prepared to still see a few of them burrow fresh holes, which you can then deal with using more of the dust. If you follow this routine they won't go away over night but activity should die down to little or nothing after 2-3 seasons. If you are around an area where there is a heavy population of them then putting up traps and have your exterior wood treated by an exterminator should be the routine every year as soon as temps go above 70 degrees.