Reminds me of the old Planet of the Apes movies. Are these squirrels destined to eventually dominate us, using their powerful little squirrel brains to make us their slaves? It would have made a good TV series. Have people dress up in squirrel suits exploiting humans for their labor. I can still hear Charlton Heston's voice: "Darn you, darn you all to heck."

About six years ago, I bought Tagetes minuta. I had a TERRIBLE Nimatode problem. Just terrible! Tagetes minuta is the ONLY Marigold that will actually kill Nimatodes and other bugs. Well, it worked great planting them near my tomatoes. They kill all kinds of things besides nematodes, including wire worms, cut worms, intestinal worms in the ground, insects, fungi and more. It worked great! No more knotted & deformed roots! So what's her beef, you may ask? Well, I discovered that it is the most invasive plant I have ever seen! The plants start out tiny, but grow into monster plants. At any size will they begin to make flowers - very small, pale yellow, stinky flowers that even wards off animals and people. These minute flowers make seeds that are very minute (hence the name). The seeds have little fuzzy parasols that are easily carried on the slightest breeze, similar to dandelions, but tinier. I was vigilant, kept pruning the plants back when I saw the first flower, but they KNEW what I was doing and sped up their action and started really putting on the flowers and going to seed twice daily. I stayed vigilant and removed all flowers and seeds (I thought) and disposed of them (by fire). Wen they got to be too much, I just pulled them all out and burned them. Well, apparently, some managed to escape my surveillance anyway, and dropped seeds and they began to spread through the herb garden. They took over the herb garden and one by one my herbs began to die out, all except the Oregano and garlic chives which also has gotten rampant, especially the Garlic chives. Anyway, I am still trying to get rid of the Tagetes minuta and every day new ones spring forth. There are tens of thousands of them . I pull them and more take their place and I mean EVERY DAY! Even when I've burned them, some apparently flew out of the fire and today I found some growing around the burn pile, for gosh sakes. On top of that, research on the web revealed that they should not be planted near any kind of legume (including legume type trees, like Redbuds or Mimosas) as they kill them or hinder their growth. They stink, hence their common name, Stinking John. And I also discovered that they are on a state by state NOXIOUS WEED list and are forbidden to be planted in many states. You can be fined for doing so. The "lady" who sold them to me said nothing of the negative aspects about them or about their being in the Noxious Weed list. She and her husband own and operate a small "organic herb farm" and sell their plants and produce in the Tulsa area Farmers Markets and at the spring herb festivals in the same region every year. Undoubtedly, she digs all those horrid little plants out of her garden every spring, pots them up, and sells them to unsuspecting suckers, like me. Anything to make a buck! Blast her! This is my number one enemy all year round. They are easy to pull up when small, so that helps, but all it takes is one plant that you missed and the battle can start all over. But each plant can produce thousands upon thousands of seeds that lie dormant and only emerge when they feel like bugging the hell out of me! Today, I pulled four dozen tiny seedlings that weren't there yesterday. Seriously, overnight they had sprouted and had grown and inch tall! Tomorrow there will, no doubt, be that many or more to pull out. I have to daily walk around the whole two acres looking for other plants that escaped the herb garden perims. Good grief! Don't EVER buy or take Tagetes minuta in a trade or as a FREEBIE! Stick to good old French and African Marigolds. I read that there is a pesticide product being marketed now made from Tagetes minuta, but research it thoroughly before you try it. ~Annie

I would try a very limited application of bacillus t. Be careful using this, as the bacillus will also kill friendly caterpillars (butterflies, etc.)--don't apply if there's a breeze... --Rr

Donna - From what I've read, you're right about the Japanese Beetle traps attracting more, although it does seem like it would help in the long run if enough people put them out, or better yet, if the conservation department put them out away from our yards. I only saw Japanese Beetles on my crape myrtles and roses at first and each year they keep finding more and more things that they like. My butterfly bush was heavily attacked this summer8 and of course it wouldn't be very smart to spray THAT since it would likely kill the butterflies too. It's so frustrating. I do think there are some birds that will eat them and hoping more and more birds will develope a taste for them. Peggy - I had a bumper crop of lady bugs this year. I was finding them by the dozens this spring. I still had aphids but I think not as many as last year. I usually see a lot of aphids on my mums and they left those alone at least. Hope the lady bugs are not the Asian variety that likes to move into the house for the winter but with my luck, probably so. Marian - This started out as my worst year yet for chiggers but they seemed to fizzle when it got so hot and dry late this summer. Too dry for mosquitos too I think.