Something else that helps is daily cleaning of paddocks and spreading the manure. Don't let it accumlate. We don't have a manure pile, spread it out on the field every day. We don't have the chickens either, I just couldn't deal with them running all over. Mowing around fields, paddocks is supposed to provide less cover for flies. Of course they will fly a long way if they smell something good, sweaty horses! Have you tried the rub on fly repellents, some folks swear by them. How effective they are will depend on how sweaty or how often you wash the animals. Repellent has a shorter life on sweaty or washed often, equines. I do place some of the fly traps around, and we stall the horses daily. Few flies come in the dark barn. Those horses who don't come when called, are sorry pretty quickly! We leave them out a few more hours, flies really chew them up, chase them around. They are NOT slow to come the next time they get called!! Horses get night time turnout. Mosquitoes bite them but not quite as hard as the flies. I am seeing a lot more gnats this year, lots of scabby bites along the belly line, up in the girth area. I vasaline the scabs, horses love being rubbed on those itchy spots. Around here the flies are greenheads, deer flies, and the big monsters should be out soon. None of the repellents work for more than a couple hours, often less. All those flies bite pretty hard. The little black biters draw blood too, but just the numbers of them drive you crazy. Summer horse shows are all about heavy fly sprays so horse will pay attention to you. I wash horse on return home, so he doesn't have a skin irritation from repeated applications. I found a plan for home made fly traps. Use whatever bait you like. He does warn that traps are somewhat smelly with his bait mix. I heard from other persons that beer and egg mixed, or a old piece of spoiling meat in water, makes good bait. Both are easy. These traps looked like they would do a good job, fairly easy to make, not really expensive. I plan to make some, hope they are helpful to you. Here is a link that might be useful: Fly Trap Plan--Home Made

My 18 year old JD170 finally 'died'. Or so I told myself and my wife. :-) Actually, one of the spindles broke and everyone knows that a broken spindle can't be fixed. Right? So what's a guy to do (sob). What any guy would do -- I went and bought a brand new X300 which will be delivered in 2 days. I only cut a mostly flat 1/2 acre so the X300 is overkill but who cares! I do want to buy the snow blower attachment and figured the X300 will be excellent for that purpose. I really can't wait. By the way Jaws, the spec sheet says the X300 has the K46 transmission, not the T46. I didn't read this post until last night, so I didn't get down to look at the sticker. All the posts though just confirmed that I bought one great machine. I might bypass the RIO switch though as I didn't buy the 4WS and do back up quite a bit. My 170 still has a perfectly running Kawasaki 14HP engine and tranny. What a workhorse! I gave pause to look at the HuskVys and Cub Cadets, but my 170 made me a JD loyalist. It really gave me outstanding service and I wasn't one to take care of it much. Lacking a shed and garage space, I often left it out all year, including severe upstate NY winters. It always started right up in the spring. But rust (wonder how that happened), deteriorating bags (hmmmm), and faded paint (go figure) convinced me that it was time. Actually, the fact that my 10yo son will want to be cutting the lawn in a couple years had something to do with it. Figured I want a some time where it's just MY machine. Don't worry guys -- I promise to take care of my new machine. I'm 53, and want this machine to last me 20 years or more -- or until I get the itch for a new model, whichever comes first. JD did give me $250 for a trade-in on the 170. I might had got more for it if I wanted to fix the spindle, clean it up and put up for sale -- but that would take time away from my X300. I'll let you guys know how I like it. Who am I kidding... I'm going to Love it!

Outsmarting the tree rats (squirrels) around my house is a full time job. This past spring I hit on a new idea. When I plant a container I invert an empty wire hanging basket over the container and the plant gets sun and can be watered but the squirrels can't dig in it. Another idea: I bring in a lot of plants to "over winter" under lights in my garage. I have so many that it is hard to reach my hand under the lights (4 shop lights) to the middle for watering. So I bought a pump sprayer with a long wand and it works great! In late winter I add a little liquid Dawn detergent, few drops, to each gallon of water and not only does the soil get wet easier but the worms that are waiting to hatch into distructive pets just don't hatch. Don't know what it costs me to run those four shop lights all winter but I don't care. It is a small price to pay to be able to "garden" every weekend in the garage. Many people have mentioned that they mark their outdoor plants with a "permanent Sharpie". In my experience there isn't a "permanent Sharpie", they all fade and quickly too. A grease pencil/china marker or expensive "no fade" garden center marker are the only markers I have found that won't disappoint you by fading. Eight years ago I decided to learn about gardening so I tapped into my local library. I checked out nearly every book they had on gardening and learned so much. The Gardenweb forums are also a wealth of information and entertainment. There is always something new to learn and I appreciate all of you who take the time to write in your ideas. One last idea from me...I keep a small notebook on my computer table and jot down any idea I find that's new and I will want to try. Little pieces of paper get lost but I always know where my notebook is and also use it when I order "on line" so I will remember the name of the company and the order date. Tina or Trowelgal

I wish I had tried the second technique a while ago when I had a decent amount of compost. I only went through the last purge maybe a month ago now (and haven't been feeding the remaining worms too much because of their decreased numbers) so there's not much to flip over right now. Perhaps the thing to do would be to cover the whole thing with bug netting, and stop feeding, but it will be a while before all the food in the bins are consumed and longer still for the flies to finish their life cycle, so no composting for me for maybe two months. Not sure if I like that option either. The infestation is light right now, but it's only going to take another few weeks before the flies get crazy again.