Mike is on the money here, as usual. If you have access to natural gas you will realize major savings. If I was putting in a new cast iron boiler I'd use a Buderus.

My sincere thanks to all those who have participated in our dilemma with sage and helpful suggestions and comments. That you've offered to help is deeply appreciated. The young lady in question is my great granddaughter, and she is just recently living with her grandmother, who is my daughter. My only granddaughter is the mother, and both parents of our subject are entirely agreeable that she is residing nearby with her grandmother. Unfortunately, my granddaughter is ill with MS, fibromyalgia and chronic depression, and life is tough for her, but there are a number of other children in the family without disfunction. The eldest, in fact, finished a special high school through which she gained two years of college upon graduation, and has gone on to make good life choices and further her education. The subject of our writings attended the same school, but could not quite make it, and transferred to the regular high school she now attends with good, above average grades. I have always been close to my beloved granddaughter (have a warm relationship with her very special husband), am close to my daughter, and am especially fond of the ggd of whom we speak. She, I have not mentioned, is quite naive for her age. She has a new beau, same age, who is also quite naive for his age....if such details are helpful in any way. Although we'd not before been knowledgeable of dyscalculia or executive function deficit, we are familiar with ADD, ADHD and Aspergers', and had considered them as solutions. Certainly we shall also check out teaching hospitals as suggested by lucille and others. One remark by watchmelol stood out as I, too, have wondered if our gal has unknowingly not been "encouraged to develop life skills" by her parents. This is a firm possibility as, although I am endeared to this family and keep close contact, I do not live near enough or am present often and/or long enough to casually evaluate simple everyday occurences and/or methods. I am positive all the children know how to fold laundry, do dishes, keep the kitchen clean, care for the pet and the like, but that's all I know. There are some manners that bug me, but then I am a few generations apart, and hesitate to be too picky. (One of them is the response "Good" when asked the simple "How are you?", but this may be the accepted answer of all youngsters these days, and may be important only to me.) While I don't want to belabor posters, who are kind enough to give of their time and to care, with too many details, at the same time I am hesitant about forgetting to mention anything that might be an eye opener. I am in this picture out of pure love for all concerned and plan to remain involved, especially because of the additional issue that we almost lost my daughter this time last year, and feel whatever help I can offer is accepted as just that ... help. We are seriously considering all suggestions and, again, appreciate each and every response. Pink

Ugh, I've seen a few on my roses already, and it seems early. Sadly, theres not much you can do. My father taught me to make a soapy bucket of water and pick them off in the early evening and drown them. They become sluggish late in the day, and are easy to pick off. Over the years this conversation has come up on this site and I've yet to hear anything that works to deter them.

How big is your property, and how close are your neighbors' lawns/garden? Milky spore will only help so much if they can just grow in your neighbors' lawns a few feet away and hop the property line. Same with traps: they will attract JBs from a long distance away and you may end up with MORE in your garden. But if your property is big enough--or if many of your neighbors also use traps/milky spore--then this might make a dent in the local JB population. I'm talking about putting out multiple traps over a large area (and preferably away from your garden) since killing a thousand with a trap will not make much difference if a million of them are living within a couple of miles and are attracted. In the end I resort to manual control: picking them off and shaking them into soapy water. It's just part of my normal garden routine along with pulling weeds, deadheading/pruning, and getting those danged lily beetles as well. I pick some off in the morning when I let my dog into the backyard, and then again in the evening after work and a trip to the dog park. These times are when they are most inactive and easiest to catch anyway. For the smarter ones that burrow deep into the petals to evade capture I use a pair of needlenose pliers to pick them out and minimize damage to the flowers.