I did the exact same thing with an allium that I bought. To be fair to me at the time, I was told it was A. cernuum, a weak species, but it was mislabeled. Whatever it is I have spreads by seeds, offshoots, and little bulbils that form on the seed head. I keep digging it out, spraying with roundup, and try to dry it out by withholding water, but it keeps marching on. At least it is only a problem in the spring. I have several more introduced weeds that are even worse. I'm contemplating getting a hold of some vapam, maybe I can find it next time I go to Reno....

Dawn2, We've had grasshoppers hatching out since Feb. down here in our part of the state. The warmer it gets, the more we see. We had huge numbers of crickets last year, but about an average number of grasshoppers and locusts. Since it runs in cycles, we'll probably have a lot for another year or two before their populations head into a down cycle. I really don't worry about the crickets or locusts, but the grasshoppers can be very destructive. If these critters are being a problem or a nuisance, I have the solution. : ) Really, I have two solutions--one that is more of a country type solution and the other one is more of a city type solution. Out here in a rural area, our primary method of grasshopper control on our 15 acres is guineas. One guinea can eat 2 lbs. of grasshoppers a day. Once they eat all of ours, they go next door and across the street and start cleaning up all the neighbors' grasshoppers (and ticks, and other bugs as well). Of course, free-ranging guineas wouldn't work in town. (They don't respect fences and go wherever the bugs are.) If anyone in a city setting wants to do something to cut down on the number of grasshoppers and similar pests, the time to do it is now. The most effective remedy we've ever found is an organic product called Semaspore. It is a bacteria-laced bait. I think the bacteria is Nosema locustae. You scatter the bait around, and the hoppers and other family members then eat the bait only to find themselves attacked by the bacteria within a couple of days. Once the bacteria has begun working its' evil on the pests, they stop eating within about 24 hours and begin to die. It may take a few days for them to finally die. And it can take up to a month or more for all the grasshoppers to find the stuff, eat it, get infected, and die. It is not a "quick kill" type product but it is an effective one. Ideally, you put out the bait as soon as you start seeing newly hatched hoppers, crickets or locusts. It works best when they are in the smaller instars, roughly between 1/4" to 1/2". The larger they get, the less well it works on them. One thing you need to know about any product that contains Nosema locustae as the active ingredient--it has a shelf life of only a few weeks if unrefrigerated, and up to 5 months if refrigerated. So, only buy as much as you need to use within a brief period of time. Also, check the package. Somewhere on the package it should have either a "use by" date or a "packed on" date. Be sure you are not buying old Nosema locustae because it loses its effectiveness as it ages. I have found Semaspore on the shelves of VERY reputable nurseries that was far beyond its expiration date, so watch out. And, I haven't even told you the best part yet. Grasshoppers are canabilistic. So, once some infected grasshoppers die, then more grasshoppers come along and eat them and then THOSE grasshoppers get infected and die. For this reason, once you get a little colony of Nosema locustae established on your property, you may not have to put out the product again that year and sometimes not for several years. We had a severe drought going on here in '98 when our house was being built, and in '99, when we moved here. (I think '97 had been a bad hopper/locust year too.) I put out Nosema locustae 4 times that year, about once a month beginning in March. By late summer, we didn't have much of a hopper problem even though everyone else did. I may have used Semaspore once or twice since then, but the guineas take care of the hoppers on their own most years. I've linked some info on Semaspore, which is just one of the available products that have Nosema locustae as their active ingredient. There are others, and I think one of them is named Grasshopper Attack. Our wooded acres are full of locusts and I don't worry about them. (Of course, I would do something about them if they were being really destructive instead of merely being loud.) It is mostly the grasshoppers around the house, yard and garden that become a problem, so that is the area where I scatter the Semaspore. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Semaspore

Here's one point about vacuuming extra fine construction dust that no one has made yet & it's key. When I went to buy a new brush attachment at the vacuum store to clean up our construction dust, the staff person educated me about a couple of things. Since the bag in our vacuum was paper, the ultra fine dust will flow right through it. Why didn't I think of that! Even with a thick, cloth HEPA vacuum filter bag, we run the risk of burning out our vacuum because anything that goes into the bag goes through the motor. Once that fine dust hits the motor, it doesn't take long for it to kill it. A Dyson being bagless won't work either, it just coats the inside of the vacuum, clogs & kills it. Here's further info. on that: http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?4407 He added that he's seen a brand new Kirby vacuum cleaner motor burned out after just TWO DAYS when it was used on construction dust. Kirby owners be forewarned! The suggestion of using a Rainbow vacuum is a good one because of the water filer. Of course they cost a small fortune, so I'm wondering if maybe a local rental store might rent them. It's not ideal, but neither is dropping $2K on a top end vacuum cleaner. And Mr. Rings, hopefully it goes without saying that a leaf blower is a horrible idea, unless your goal is to simply spread the dust around. ;-) I'm still figuring out how to clean up our mess, but hopefully the info. I've shared will save some from ruining their vacuum cleaners & causing undue added expense & frustration. Happy cleaning & good luck to all!

The common yellow oxalis we have here has tiny "bulbules" (sp?), which lurk 12 -18 inches under the ground. You can easily pull up the plants, of course, but those tiny bulb things stay under the soil, and up it comes again. I once had a gardener who decided to eradicate it from a flower bed which is about 12 feet long and 6 feet wide. He actually dug up the top 2 feet of soil, and sifted it by hand to get all of the tiny bulbs out. That worked for the first year, but by 2-3 years after he did that, back the oxalis came. So, being lazy, what I do is just admire it in the Spring, except where it is trying to smother other plants. Then just pull it out around those plants. By late Spring here it has died down, and I pretend it is gone. Of course, it comes up again the next Spring. It is one of our first blooming plants to bloom (starts Jan/Feb), so I just regard it as such and let it be mostly. One of my cats likes to eat it (we used to eat it as children - we called it "sour grass"). Jackie