obviously you haven't heard of "ByeBye DeerFly" http://thedeerfly.com. It is a mixture of 100% essential oils. July 2008 it was independently and successfully tested by Jamie Heal of the U.of Guelph Canada through his company Arturus Testing. He said "In terms of biting, the product performed extremely well. Circling behaviour was also reduced." This was after he had commented, "repellents are not effective against these deer and large biting flies""Deet-based products will repel deer flies for about 10 minutes" I am a family Md. I came across this formula at a dinner party. Jennifer Lane, a true back to nature, no-deet for-me herbalist concocted a mosquito repellent. She was bragging about one day horseback riding, everyone was being driven back to the stables. Finally the trailmasters suggest they return too except he noticed the deer flies were not circling her or her horse. I couldn't believe my ears. As a runner and golfer I can't go out certain times of the year. Try putting with these pests circling you. Since then, we have modified the original formula, but it works great on dogs cats horses, cows, donkeys, gardeners, hunters, fishermen construction workers, hikers etc. ByeBye DeerFly was formerly named HorseScents since that was the original market. Finally, as hard to believe as it is, they will circle 2 or 3 times land, then leave. No more circling. Two drops to the back of your head or hat is all you need. dogs, cats horses, two drops at either end. As remarkable as it seems, contact Arturus Testing for an independent evaluation or email me at info@thedeerfly.com

Oh the rabbits. It has been a rabbit year for sure! I had 4 very small ones burrowing right through my pumpkin roots, which explains why they look so crappy (that and PM came about 4 months early this year). Lots of flea beetles. But, they seem to like the established potatoes best, so, no harm, no foul. Just holes in the leaves and they look no worse for the wear (though I am eagerly waiting for them to die anyways so I can dig them up and ready the spot for some fall veggies). There is an abundance of earwigs, especially on the corn, so, I am not hopeful for a bumper crop this year (not that I really was anyways, it was more of an experiment on how close can I really plant them and still get a return). My son dug up about 15 army worms out of a pot that is on the deck, and I think I finally shook the aphids from my tomatoes and one pepper, though "how" is unknown to me. I came home from AT at the end of June to find all my beets decimated by beet leaf miners. A few small beets and almost no leaves to speak of was all I got out of that. All of the flowers seem to be in top form though. Aside from an invasion of thrips on the morning glories early on, everything else looks good. The gladiolus have just started to bloom (though only about 1/3 of them have flower stalks). The lavender and borage have been attracting bees en masse. The squash bees have finally "woken up" and are now fighting over what few pumpkin flowers I have, not quite the feast they got last year with 6 zucchini plants haha. Lots and lots of bumble bees, halictid bees of several kinds, hoverflies, and the longhorn bees are much more numerous than last year. What I haven't seen is the leafcutter bees or wool carder bees like I did last year. One leafcutter and zero wool carders.

I am so upset by what I am reading and what I have experienced over the last 12 years .. I am in the process of two major kitchen remodels and have 6 more to complete before I have them all done. Based on what I am reading here and on the internet blogs, I have ended up unwilling to order ANY new appliances. Over the last 12 years the only things I have purchased that have had great customer service are my Jura Capressa coffee makers and my Tempurpedic mattressses. All other purchases have been major headaches or outright nightmares. I am at the point that buying anything at all literally makes me sick at my stomach (and this is not just because I am a guy who does not enjoy shoppping in general). I have noticed that I have become openly hostile to sales people in general. With very few exceptions, I have never met a "sales" person who had even the scant ethics of even a democrat politician. The fact that I am now expected to buy appliances from one of these ingenuine sociopathic sales types is so upsetting that I have my two kitchen remodels on hold. I have great inset all wood custom cabinets with great custom granite counters ... and no appliances. Friends of mine in CA hate their Miele, friends in Henderson Nevada hate their Subzero and Dacor, friends in NY hate their Monogram, friends in Naples Florida hate their AGA and Viking, friends in the Netherlands hate their Miele, friends in Carmel Indiana hate their Traulson and Miele, friends in Arizona hate their Kitchen Aid ... and it goes on and on with nightmare after nightmare of new appliances defective out-of-the-box, incompetent installers, unethical distributors, sales people that grab the big commissions and then can't even return follow up calls, manufacturers that don't honor their warranty committments or try to stong arm the very customers that their business should be treating with dignity and integrity. To add insult to injury, many regional better business bureaus rate these retailers and businesses A+. No wonder consumers have stopped purchasing ... it is not the recession that has stopped people from making major purchases, but, rather, the expectation that after-purchase headaches will take months and months to resolve with stress levels higher than paying for your childrens' college educations. Short of having an attorney produce a contract that the appliance supplier has to sign and be held to legally, does anyone out there have any other magic process. A process that assures the customer won't be setting themselves up for an extremely stressful experience with underpaid customer disservice departments trained by the Insurance claims industry to intimidate and wear down the customer to a point of having to just give up? signed - a potential appliance customer in limbo

DublinBay, you said you were hoping to find some rhyme or reason to the beetles population growth/decline. I think it is very unlikely that flooding or excessive rain contributes to their downfall, considering the highly conflicting reports. However, I’d like to hear more from others who experienced severe LACK of rainfall last year, as I did. It’s a fact that the grubs need the fleshy grass roots to do well, and if the the grass is brown and dead from lack of water/rain (as ours was), it is unlikely many grubs thrive. I think this contributed, at least somewhat, to the lessened quantity of beetles I have experienced this year. Granted, if one lives in a neighborhood and there are well watered lawns all about, this wouldn’t be the same. I live in the countryside, and there were no green lawns, no pastures, barely any weeds by the end of summer. Impossible to irrigate miles of hayfields. lol any of you experiencing some relief from The Little Green Devils, do you remember if your summer was rainy or excessively dry?