>>I didn't put any fertilizer down, is that something that I should be doing?? Not yet. The seed contains all the resources the plant will require for its first month of life or so. If you go organic, feeding at seeding time is correct (it takes about a month to begin to release nitrogen and there's an extremely wide window of release). Synthetically, feeding about a month post-sprout is correct. At that point, the baby roots have grown enough to be able to gather nitrogen from the soil.What about so called "starter fertilizer"? Does it help at seeding time? I've been going milo so far this year but was thinking about dropping the Scott's starter with Mesotrione to buy me 6 weeks or so until I can put down Barricade or Dimesnsion. Figured its 2 birds with one stone...

Most people who report an allergic reaction to bee or wasp stings have no such thing. "Allergic" indicates that the victim has a generalized immune system reaction to the venom (usually protein components) that's disproportionate to the amount of poison injected. A localized swelling and pain do not indicate an allergic reaction. Something remote from the site of the sting, like disorientation, accelerated or greatly slowed heart rate, numb lips or swollen/constricted throat would be a better indicator. Yellowjackets and other wasps are hunters that kill animal prey (e.g. caterpillars) to feed themselves and/or their offsping. Therefore they need to use their stingers multiple times on a day-to-day basis. They have smooth-sided stingers for injection of venom, then withdrawal, equivalent to a hypodermic syringe. Their stingers are very unlikely to pull out from their bodies, whether they sting into a glove or your skin. Bees, with few exceptions, are vegetarians that do not need to sting their food. Honey bees and some other types of social bees have barbed stingers. When they sting, the stinger remains anchored in the skin, together with attached poison gland and muscles that remain contracting. This maximizes delivery of pain to the recipient of the sting. Honey bees usually sting to protect their hive or in individual self-defense, as a last resort after escape has failed. After losing its barbed stinger and part of its guts, the bee dies. Most of the many types of bees (>20,000 worldwide), and even honey bee queens, have smooth stingers that can be used multiple times without harming the bee. Although reactions to venoms are individualized and perception of pain subjective, most other bees don't cause nearly as much pain to the person stung as honey bees, because they don't inject nearly as much venom. If you have just been stung, make a little bit of paste of meat tenderizer (e.g. Adolf's or generic with papain ingredient) and apply that directly to the wound site, after removing the stinger by scraping ACROSS the skin surface. If it has been applied soon enough, before the venom has a chance to diffuse into surrounding tissues, the tenderizer will break apart the proteins in the venom, and they will become less toxic. Other products should also help, such as baking soda or ammonia solution. The best way to eliminate yellowjacket colonies, if you need to, is to apply a small amount (1-2 tbsp) of powdered insecticide (carbaryl or pyrethroid types are standards in use) to the nest entrance, then leave it alone. Do it at night when wasps are inside the nest. Workers will track the poison into the nest and poison everything inside over a period of a few days. Liquid insecticides won't work nearly as well, if at all. Yellowjackets and other wasps are important garden predators and should not be destroyed unless necessary. They also provide some pollination services, although not comparable to bees for most plants.

I had a nice honey bee hive going on in my water meter. I thought about just letting the city take care of it, as they couldnt get to the meter otherwise, but then realized they would just spray it and kill the poor guys. I looked on craigs list and found a guy 3 counties over, that charged a minimum of 200 and stated he typically charged a 100 dollars an hour :(. Beginning to think the city idea wasn't so bad after all. I looked in the yellow pages and found about 3 local honey dealers. First one I called referred me to a local guy a couple of miles away. Called him up, told him the issue and he said he would come remove it for 75.00. Still not thrilled about letting go of the green, but it sounded a lot better than 200 plus or killing them. The beekeeper showed first thing the next morning. Worked a couple of hours and left a hive over the nest, says he will be back in a couple of days to pick them up. He removed all of the honey,which he said she had made a lot of, and states he has scraped everything out and will spray with insecticide at the end. He said he can't guarantee they won't be back next year. He said they were very friendly and he could have easily worked with them without cover. He is happy the queen was a producer, I am happy he is taking them home with him. He said spraying them is the first thing people think of, but it won't get rid of them. Their honey is left to ferment in there, and attracts all kinds of problems, or worse contaminates the honey that ends up who knows where, and a new crew moves in. I know my lawn guys are gonna be happy :)

Have you got some follow up information to report? I'm very interested. Marie