Toni, it sounds like yellow jackets that got you. They look similar to honeybees, with their black & yellow stripes & small size. They can sting multiple times & are extremely aggressive. Also, IME, honey bees are pretty laidback like bumble bees. They aren't real fast & kind of just buzz slowly from flower to flower. I can swat them away & they just buzz off contently to the next flower, not paying me a bit of mind. They only time I've seen honey bees get aggressive is when their hive is threatened. (We have a lot of wild hives up here in old trees here) Honey bees can only sting you once & it breaks off their stinger in your skin, they die shortly after. If it was truly honeybee stings, you'd have had to scrape the stingers out of your skin & you can see the stingers. Not yellowjackets or hornets, though. Those little devils can sting & sting & sting. And they will chase you! My hubby & his crazy siblings & cousins have this summertime "game" (I'd say it's kinda like roulette, LOL!) where they spray the yellowjacket nest & knock it down & then run like hell. Crazy, right? I do not participate! Love my crazy in-laws, but that's one thing I consider a little too crazy ;-) I know that dragonflies lay eggs, that's how they reproduce. I have no idea if you could order dragonfly eggs or larvae, but that's something worth looking into. I strongly disagree with the government's spraying for West Nile because it does affect the healthy bug population. And ignorant humans don't realize just how important bugs are to our planet. That spray was also linked to adverse reactions by people with compromised immune systems, elderly & young people, & people with any type of breathing conditions (COPD, ashtma, etc). Simple fact is that it's poison & there are many more environmentally friendly ways to deal with such a problem. Just one of many reasons I converted from a city girl to a country girl when I grew up...I much prefer living up here in the boonies of southern Oklahoma, with its wild natural beauty & undisturbed, well-balanced ecosystem, than in DFW with its smog & concrete & just general yuckness that they subject the population to.

Probably a clump of that soil moist stuff. It is in diapers to absorb and hold moisture. Like a jelly when wet. The nursery probably uses it for certain plants that cannot handle drying out at all... Maybe some pot handler/nursery dude just tossed too much in, : ) In a clump. Stoner,... haha Terrible stuff for some plants, but good for others.

I really like airy soils like 5:1:1 for seed starting because they produce such healthy root systems. I generally sprinkle coarse seeds over the top and cover them with a fine layer of peat or Turface fines. Fine seeds, like lettuce, get added to some sand or Turface fines & get sprinkled over the top and also get covered lightly by peat or Turface fines. I never water from the bottom - always from the top. I think that's good practice for all soils in which seeds are being started, but especially for those that are more water-retentive than seeds might prefer. Here's why: If you bottom water a heavy soil, the seeds have 0 chance of using all the perched water before root function/health is negatively affected. There's simply no way to prevent it OTHER than by physically using a technique that removes excess water after bottom watering. If you spritz the covered seeds from the top and stop when the uppermost layer of soil is moist, you can keep the top moist and prevent perched water from saturating the lower reaches of the pot. That's a BIG plus when starting seeds. Al

The doggy composter that is SLIGHTLY sunken into the ground is the best bet. The whole point of my outhouse story is that if you dig a deep hole and fill it with anything MORE permeable than the surrounding rock and clay, water will collect in it. Whether you fill it with topsoil, compostables or poop, it's going to be soggy when it rains and it will take a long time to drain out. I would go shallow if you dig at all. Wider if you have to, which would give moisture it more surface area to soak into. What we ended up doing with the outhouse was to cut the top off of a 55-gal plastic drum and sink it so the top edge was flush with the ground. We have a woodshop so plenty of sawdust. After use, we sprinkle a coffee can of sawdust over it. It's getting full but it's been about 5 years of occasional use. At some point I'll dig it out and pile it in the woods to finish decomposing on its own. If you bury a drum or a bucket with a hole in the bottom, water can come up from the bottom during wet conditions and you end up with the same result. I would not recommend putting a hole in the bottom if you bury something very deep. A 5-gal bucket might be fine, or one of those dog poop composters which I believe has essentially no bottom but the hole is only a few inches to a foot deep. As for conventional composting, you wouldn't have to turn the stuff, first of all. Compost doesn't require turning, it just makes the process go faster. You could layer it with browns like I do in my outhouse and let it be. When it gets full move the bin and start over. Cover the pile with a piece of burlap and let it finish for a season. Do that in the fall and you won't even walk by it much while it's finishing. You won't find anything resembling poop by spring. You can always change tactics, too. Try something, see how you like it, observe and adjust.