Wow, the flame wars are still going on. But, it sure makes for an interesting read. Been too busy at work to follow them for a while. I still pose my previous question from a few days ago -- Where is all of this moral outrage when the animal being killed isn't cute, fuzzy, and something that showed up in a Disney movie? Other than one poster, no one seems to care about moles, voles, squash borers, slugs, etc., but they are all 'God's creatures' are they not? Perhaps it's symptomatic of the society we live in -- would the media follow the daily ups and downs of Britney, Paris, Tom-Kat, or BrAngelina if they weren't the 'beautiful people?' I think the animal rights bleeding hearts are only concerned about the cute, fuzzy little critters. Despite the fact that one poster seems to think I'm some kind of psychopathic serial killer because I put out poison bait blocks for the voles, it seems to me that I and the vast majority of the rest of the posters on here recognize the need to control vermin species when they get out of hand. If we don't keep things like mice, voles, rats, etc., under control, we'll all end up living in filth and disease as happened during the Middle Ages. And, in the real world, the only practical way to do this is often to kill them. It doesn't mean it's 'fun,' but sometimes, 'a man's gotta do ....' And, it isn't based on some deep, dark psychological 'need' to harm animals, its based on a simple, pragmatic desire to protect all of our hard work and our financial investment. Trust me, been there, done that, I really did have a blue heron eat $500 worth of koi in an afternoon. No, I didn't kill it or shoot it, I strung fishline all across the pond, which was a pain in the butt, but it worked to deter the herons. Had that not worked, in that case, I would have been screwed, because herons are protected under the Migratory Bird Act of 1919, no exceptions that I know of allow them to be killed. I did lose many of hundreds of dollars worth of plants to voles in the past few years. Some of them were figs and other woody plants I was overwintering in a deep trench under mulch. When I dug them out in the spring, I LITERALLY had sawdust, nothing else was left. So, I now put out, carefully, in nooks and crannies where pets and desirable wild animals can't get them, LOTS of poison bait blocks. It's expensive, and frankly I wish I didn't have to, but it's better than the alternative of being overrun with voles. The poison bait keeps them to a low level, but doesn't totally eliminate them. I had a filthy mouse invade my house a few years back. I won't be a hypocrit myself and deny that I didn't get some little sense of satisfaction in hearing the mousetrap go 'snap' when I finally got the mouse that moved into my kitchen cupboards, but I hardly think that makes me a depraved Jeffrey Dahmer type serial killer. There's a big difference between people who are killing 'vermin' species for a legitimate economic or health reason, and between those mentally disturbed or sociopathic individuals who do torture animals, usually domestic animals, for some sick reason. I think the vast majority of us know the difference between a vole or squirrel and the neighbor's cat. And, I don't see how taking a little satisfaction in eliminating a serious pest problem which has been plaguing you makes someone a bad person. Now, when you take it to the level of George W. going after Saddam Hussein on contrived charges, just to show up or show off to his daddy, well, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax, starting a war, killing thousands of people, and sinking this country into a political and economic quagmire. When it rises to that level, then, I think you can legitimately ask questions about someone's psychological makeup and mental stability. But, those of us shooting a squirrel or two to save our fruit trees don't exactly rise to the George W. level. I apologize to any Neocons and Bush supporters out there, dont' want to turn this into a purely political debate,just had to vent a bit and make that analogy. By the way, for the squirrel huggers out there, are you aware of the fact that some communities BAN or LIMIT the feeding of squirrels and other wild animals and birds BECAUSE feeding them is a public health and safety issue? Roseville, Michigan is one such community, and there are others. And, while rare, squirrels CAN transmit rabies, among other diseases. Finally, a couple of other thoughts. Lobster -- yum! And, as someone named Dave pointed out above, I don't know WHY I'm wasting my time arguing this with someone who very well might be some 14 year old idealist who has never lived in the real world. Ah, the joys of the 'net. Allenwrench -- you might really enjoy this forum. Check it out, seems to be right up your alley, based upon all of your recent posts: http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/ Dennis SE Michigan Dennis SE Michigan Here is a link that might be useful: I Dig My Garden Forums

"Glad that you mentioned your experience with Fantasia. You are so right that the info can be conflicting." Mamuang, I can see my post was a bit confusing. I'm trialing about 10 different cultivars, but none them have fruited yet. I was always a bit hesitant to try nects because I'd seen and heard how difficult they are to grow commercially around here. I finally decided to put some in after hearing all the positive comments about flavor on this forum. Quite a few of mine will be in their third leaf this summer. Even so they are too young to experience bac. spot. I rarely see it on peach leaves until the trees are old enough to start fruiting. It gets worse with age as the foliage gets more dense and leaves/fruit are slower to dry out from rain/dew. My comments about Fantasia and Honey Blaze are strictly from bac. spot susc./res. lists put together by people who are supposed to know what they are doing. For example Fantasia is rated as medium to highly susceptible by the NJ list Scott linked. Honey Blaze is rated as highly susc. I got both of these varieties from Adams and they rated them much more favorably (which at the time was why I bought them). I've since read other sources which rate those two cultivars poorly in terms of bac. spot resistance, so I'm inclined to believe Adams is somewhat overly optimistic when it comes to some of the bac. spot ratings. Or maybe it's simply not much of a problem in PA.

I just wanted to post an update on my second summer using organic flea-eating nematodes. We haven't treated the dogs once this summer for fleas. And the poor puppy is also alergic to fleas and really suffers with them. I was pretty haphazard about the application, just soaking the sponge in a watering can and sprinkling it around the yard. When I got that first dirty sponge in the mail and it had all those instructions about sprayers with a certain size hole and soaking the yard evenly... I figured I'd never get it right. When the sprayer promptly broke, I just put the sponge in the watering can figuring I might as well try that, hoping it would help a little, so my $35 wasn't a complete waste. (The instructions do say to put the sponge in the vegetable crisper in the fridge if you can't use it right away, which I did for two weeks, and it didn't seem to hurt it.) And that haphazard approach worked. I didn't do the sprinkling evenly. I certainly didn't hit every blade of grass. But I got the little buggers in the dirt in a bunch of places around the yard. And because they're little organisms that move and breed, they seem to have spread out. Even my vet was impressed. We did have to redo it this spring. They can't last through the dry season here, but we don't sprinkle in the winter, so in some yards, they may be an almost permanent solution. We had to treat the dogs with Advantix once this year. But that's down from once every two weeks last July. And even when I thought I had probably done it a little too early this year, when it wasn't raining yet, they've survived to kill fleas all summer. We've used comfortis too, and I thank the heavens for it when the pup was suffering so much last summer. Nothing we've ever used worked faster and we really didn't realize how much he was suffering until he passed out asleep when the fleas stopped biting him, exhausted from staying up all night itchy. Poor guy! It's a great emergency treatment, but for long-term, I can't say enough about nematodes. Cheaper, easier, no chemicals and protects all the other animals. I bet my squirrels are more comfortable. :) I got mine from Clean Air Gardening, but I think other places have them too.

From the time my oldest son was less than 2 years old, I have seen the influence an unrelated girl of a similar age can have on behavior. Maybe his drunken behavior chasing off the very one he sought to impress can be a catalyst you or your family could not provide. I hope it will be a helpful step for him. Perhaps you can help him by reminding him that alcoholics in recovery are not the only people who don't drink. Many people chose never to drink and others cannot drink for other medical reasons (past illnesses liver or kidney issues, medications they take), religious issues, etc. I doubt most folks would press for an explanation if he chose not to drink, but there are better ways to deal with the situation than to get drunk. He could simply say he took some allergy medication earlier and can't drink on top of that, ate something that didn't agree with him a day or two ago and is taking it easy -- nothing that commits him to a long term story. He can reveal himself if and when he's ready. He just needs to be prepared so he can handle the situation. Though I'm surprised that any treatment wouldn't include discussion about handling those situations, he obviously wasn't -- or he didn't want to believe that he needed to be. Maybe he needed some proof. Hope he see that he got it and that he's ready for it now. Cautiously hopeful for both of you.