OMG Sandy, Just read this post and you talked about thrush. That is a nasty, nasty word in my book. I supposedly have asthma and am on the inhaler Advair. After too many, too many bouts with thrush I went cold turkey off of Advair. I got thrush back in February. It got so bad it went to my throat and tonsils. Even my gums were bleeding. I couldn't even drink tea I was in so much agony. I lost 5# because I couldn't eat. I still had thrush in May after a month of being on Diflucam to take it away. I could eat but it still hurt, and forget about taste. I lived on applesauce, jello and pudding. On Father's Day this year I thought I had a small stoke. It felt like someone had stabbed me in the left side of my head with a sharp pencil, then my whole left side went numb, even my tongue. The MRI showed I had a slight brain aneurysm that had healed itself. That was it. I decided the Lord gave me a second chance at life and I wasn't going to abuse it. I am now on a strict low-sodium diet. I have lost 30#. It seems like the pounds are just melting away. If it ain't natural it ain't going in my body. I gave up diet pop, and anything with splenda, neutrasweet or aspartame in it. I have been told I have had asthma and allergies my whole life, and I can't believe the difference. I haven't used an inhaler since February and don't have a problem breathing. I haven't had an asthma attack (thank God) and this is the first year I haven't sneezed my head off during allergy season. I am up to 1.60 miles on the manual treadmill and can bench press 50# on the Bowflex. I don't care what my allergist tells me, I refuse to put anymore steroids into my body. That's what caused the thrush in my mouth and throat, steroids in the Advair inhaler. I feel like I have been reborn. Jenny

Kelley, Bt 'kurstaki' is a narrow-spectrum bio-insecticide that targets caterpillers and larvae that bother many ornamental and vegetable plants. In a residential landscape and/or home garden, it is often used to control tomato hornworms, tobacco hornworms, cutworms, tomato fruitworms/corn earworms, canker worms, leaf miners and various types of grub worms. It is available in both a liquid form and in a powdered, granular form (Dipel Dust and similar products). I've linked one of the more common Bt Caterpiller killer type products below. Most all of the Bt 'kurstaki' products either say Worm Killer or Caterpiller Killer on the label or have images of caterpillers on the label or both. All Bt products are made of toxins derived from naturally-occurring bacteria. The other species of Bt most commonly used in a home setting are: (1) the 'San Diego' or 'tenebrionis' species-derived products (San Diego is genetically engineered so it cannot be used in Certified Organic operations, but tenebrionis is not genetically-engineered so it can be used in Certified Organic operations) which is used to control beetle larvae, and most often used to control the larval form of the Colorado Potato Beetle; and (2) the 'Israelensis' species, available as a granular product you sprinkle in standing water or as 'mosquito dunks' to drop into water. It controls mosquito larvae. One caution about using Bt 'kurstaki' is that it kills ALL butterfly and moth larvae, so be very careful when applying it so it does not wipe out all your butterflies and moths. Many butterfly gardeners choose not to use Bt 'kurstaki' because they don't want to harm the very butterflies and moths they are trying to attract to their plantings. For webworms, I usually just take a stick (or a long, telescoping pole pruner if the webs are high up in a tree) and break open the web. Once the caterpillars lose the protection of that web, the wild birds here gobble them up. I have a huge bird population here in our rural area, one I have carefully 'cultivated' by feeding them year-round, always providing numerous drinking water sources for them daily and a birdbath as well, and by providing birdhouses for them. If you are in an urban or suburban setting with a smaller population of wild birds, you may not have enough of them around to control the webworms. I think Bt is a wonderful solution if someone needs to control caterpillers, but I don't spray it myself because I like having butterflies and moths around. Some people say you can't grow fruit trees here without spraying for worms, but I've harvested over 350 lbs. of fruit from trees which were not sprayed with anything. Having said that, I don't usually have tent caterpillers (aka webworms) in large nmbers and the few I see (some years I see none) are taken care of by natural predators. I do think some parts of OK have a much more severe problem with webworms than we have here in southcentral OK. Barbara, Believe me, it has not been an easy choice to refrain from spraying insecticial soap or neem oil, and I'm not saying I'd never, ever use either one or both. For example, neem oil can be very useful in flea control, but my dogs usually don't have a big flea or tick problem, so I don't usually use it for that purpose. (I wouldn't hesitate to spray the ground in their dog yard and the fenceline around it if they did have fleas though.) In a 'bad year' I'll spray the dog yard's ground and fenceline with peppermint soap which is a great repellent. Neem is found in many pet products, including flea shampoos, and I have used those tea tree oil flea shampoos on our dogs in a year when there is a heavy infestation of fleas or ticks. (I've also bathed them in Cedarcide, orange oil-based shampoos and peppermint soap in years like that....2007 was one of those years.) Bagworms are very hard to control, but I've only seen them one year since moving here, and never since then, so I don't have to deal with them. I generally ignore leaf miners. I've never had them do enough damage to kill a plant or even to significantly harm one. The kaolin clay products like Surround are very helpful in some instances, but there again I choose not to use them. They make the garden look hideously awful, among other things, and you have to reapply it after rain or overhead watering washes it off the leaves. Kaolin clay reminds me of the old folk remedy of mixing all-purpose flour with water and spraying it on the foliage to keep the hoppers away. I used that in the bad grasshopper years back around 2003 or so, but didn't like the way the garden looked and couldn't tell it made a big dent in the amount of hopper damage I've been seeing. I didn't think it was worth the time I spent spraying. You aren't seeing a large amount of damage from pest insects because some sort of beneficials are eating them. I have seen huge numbers of insects, but not correspondingly high levels of plant damage. Potato beetles were my worst issue, and I just hand-picked them. My regular garden turtle was very frustrated that he was fenced out of the new potato patch area, and once I realized he wanted in there, I opened the gate and let him in and I haven't had to hand-pick CPBs since. Once he picked that area clean, he returned to the regular garden, leaving me to wonder how he 'knew' the CPBs (or, for that matter, the potato plants) were out there in the new area away from the main garden. If you aren't seeing significant levels of lady bugs and dragon flies, that means they've gone someplace else where there are more pest insects to eat. The first few years here, we always had billions of beneficial insects of all kinds. Then, their numbers abruptly dropped and I was sort of panicky, wondering what was 'wrong'. Finally I realized they left because there wasn't enough of a pest insect population to attract them. Now I see them come and go, appearing seemingly out of the blue if a pest population shows up like the aphids that showed up on my sugar snap peas this spring, and then leaving when their work is done. We have many wasps here, probably more than a regular homeowner would be comfortable having around. I am always happy to have them here because they are such great predators, but every time Tim walks out the door, it seems like one stings him (2 or 3 times this week alone). I suspect the many types of wasps are the reason I seldom have problems with caterpillers. You know, logic would tell you that someone with all the nightshade plants I have would have a major tomato/tobacco hornworm problem, but I see, perhaps, 8 or 10 most years and I give the wasps credit for those low numbers. It has taken me a long time to arrive at the point that I seldom rely on any sort of insecticide and there were some hard years when I worried the natural ecosystem would fail, but it never has. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Example of a Bt 'kurstaki' product

I have returned to say how, those suffering with other's inconsideration is not only unbearable, but then, getting no support or resolve from those in charge of a building who could do something, but do not. It is HELL. I would like to see those in charge have to spend ONE night listening to endless disruption (besides the reverberating sounds from stomping), being unable to get away from, to see how they would survive. I recall early on with this current ass and trying to discuss the hard-walking with management...being told "We can't do anything about walking". 😒 Sure, THEY are not having their lives altered this way, so they can just assume that one complaining is overreacting and the claim is overlooked. Dear God, there is such a difference in having to hear this, when NORMAL walking is not heard. Believe me, having had other tenants above in that unit, I can tell you it is not due to construction in this instance. Some walk forcefully on their HEELS, creating thudding reverberation. Those not having to experience this should have to find out for themselves. (Once, my manager having worked in a downstairs unit, told me how the tenant living above THAT unit "walked REALLY HARD". I said, "Now you know what I have been going through".., (yet nothing is done... not being witnessed as it should). 😟 Also, I have imagined there being a way for one's walk to be tested (unbeknownst to them), prior to allowing an applicant to live above another... though I realize being unrealistically possible. There is so much else, besides. The manager here asking a prospective tenant if they "are quiet" is pretty laughable. 😏 From what I have read online, some managers and owners do not allow disruptive behavior. Why can't this be standard? Anyway, I have lived in older buildings all my adult life, some built in the '50's, '60's, this one built in 1977. Having lived on the first floor, I never had experienced such inconsideration from tenants until my later years, coming down to a few uncaring, thoughtless individuals. I have heard that buildings built in later years can be worse than older-constructed buildings, such as some newer high-rises with wooden flooring, constructed quickly. Also, it being about the disrespectful personality involved, yet if one has enough income, etc., they are allowed in. 🫤 I feel this situation needs to be fully considered and addressed more appropriately so that considerate renters can stop suffering, (yet with all the housing issues, it seems attention is not going to be given to this this....again, about $ taking precedence). ((sigh))

Here to the T5 and then to a 600 watt metal halide full spectrum, with mylar. I have experience with indoor lights. I was only going to grow it as an annual and save cuttings, but you can cut them to a stump and they'll still leaf out. I need a heated greenhouse. Apple of Sodom? Well, if they were eating them that would explain their rude behavior. It would be worse than eating artichoke silk.They do really use the sap for poison arrows. No fire and brimstone wilt come nigh my house! Here's a log of a member growing Calotropis from seed. She has since mysteriously dissapeared. And she's from Arkansas! It's good you kept the Impatiens. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/4453958/growing-calotropis-procera-from-seed