I have voles and possibly moles. I've seen the voles (mouse-like creatures) but I have loads of tunnels in the yard. So maybe that is a mole. Farm stores and big box home and garden stores have granules which are labeled non toxic and won't harm pets. You have to get the granules into the tunnels and water it in. My understanding is you water and do more granules going towards the end of your property lines, driving them away. To be honest, I did not want to fool with the watering part. There was also an earthworm-looking bait, it looked like a fake rubber earthworm, supposedly they eat it and it kills them. I didnt' want to use this becoz I have a small dog, and altho I don't think she would get into the tunnel and eat the earthworm bait, one never knows. And then poison bait not eaten will get into the environment. The next gizmos were solar-powered and battery-powered sonic emitters. The thing made a beep every 30 seconds, which I didn't like. So far I have decided not to intervene, becoz, while I have lots of tunnels, I don't see any plant damage, all my bulbs are up etc. So we are peacefully co-exisiting at the moment. Laurie

roflmao. I KNOW and I am praying for spring to come SOON ha ha ha Daniella me a shopaholic? Guess who made me into one? rofl All you LINK folks and saying...that place has a sale or this one ha ha ha ha ha I was really sick when you all said Lowes had a succulent sale and we had icy roads lol See what is left you you snooze. Kylie I was supprised to how easily that seed sprouted! Thanks again. Lucy

I don't know what method you should use for extraction... jaws of life, perhaps? I can tell you that when mine requires the ICU, I usually dig it up, remove invading weeds. I'll remove soil if it seems clay-ey, otherwise, I try not to mess with roots. My ICU is reserved for hostas who were struggling in the big garden, were only 1 pathetic eye at purchase and for the few remaining mini/dwarfs I have. There are probably 50 plants in there, but a few of them will graduate to the big garden this year!

Hi zeedman, hope everything is going well with you. Thanks again for the two kinds of "MN" cowpeas, they did wonderfully even with the bad growing season we had here. My project is making slow progress. I have more raw data to go through than I have time available. Much bigger project than I anticipated (as is usual for me). I thought it would be safer to have all my hard work on an offline computer so I acquired a second one that is dedicated just to the project. I linked a database to a spreadsheet. I settled on using the database for general information and I give every variety its own number. That number is referenced on the spreadsheet for further details and information. The spreadsheet offers a quick side-by-side comparison of varieties by using category checkmarks. Works pretty good. The thing is, the more time I spend and the more knowledge I acquire, the more obsessed I become. Beans sure are fascinating. A big problem is categorizing because of all the different terminologies and because many beans have multiple uses. The yellow/wax was one small issue, but there are more such as Romano beans versus flat beans, Lima (and Fava?) versus broad beans, French beans and filet beans, horticulturals and shellies, etc. Are cornfield beans distinctly different from typical pole beans or just regional terms for the same thing? Why are runner beans varieties of Phaseolus coccineus but 1/2 runner beans are varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris? That kind of confusing stuff. I am having to constantly go back into my "finished" data and correct errors or update information. Two steps forward, one step back. Second big problem is that I wanted a photo of each variety with beans set on as well as a photo of the dry seed beans. Not going to happen in my lifetime. ;-) Was such a distraction and time-killer that I dropped the whole idea for now. All in all I would say I am generally making progress, considering I only have time to work on it in the winter. I am a lot farther along now than when I last posted on this thread, but have a long way to go. I branched out into greasies, cutshorts, fall beans, teparies, tropical and subtropical beans, asian beans, foreign varieties available commercially, extinct varieties, etc. I also am working on cowpeas and soybeans just because I am so interested in them. When I get frustrated with the snap and dry beans I work on these categories instead. The biggest eye opener by far is how much duplicity is out there. I am convinced a great many varieties are actually the same ones with different names. I have come across seed companies and even growers and market sellers that arbitrarily change the names for selling purposes. Heck, I am even guilty. I got some bean seeds in a trade and the woman, an immigrant from eastern Europe, didn't know what they were so I named them after the nearest towns they came from in her homeland. What am I to do, call them "Unknown 1" and "Unknown 2" forever? I don't think what I did is quite as bad as changing a name to make a variety sound "cute" or make them more marketable, but the end result is confusion just the same. Finally, I hate to sound greedy, but I think this project may be worthy of publishing if I can get it finished, rather than free-sourcing it on the web. Several people I have shown it to have suggested looking into that possibility. Wasn't my original intention but because it is so complex I now feel I should try to get some kind of return on my investment of time and energy, if possible. This is nowhere on the priority lists, though, and if it ultimately doesn't happen it is no big deal to me. My personal collection is growing. With this year's orders and trades I am at well over 100 varieties of bush and pole snap and dry beans, asian beans, cowpeas, and soybeans. We have an informal little local club of hobby growers that are all interested in these so we coordinate and plant different varieties and swap seeds with each other. Pretty fun. Take care, -Tom I know it is improper to ask - wrong forum, wrong thread - but if anyone has any white wax beans would you be willing to part with a few seeds? I really want to acquire some. Thanks much.