APHIDS! I HATE APHIDS! Ive watched ants farm them. Not nice either! The ants bully the poor little fat aphids into submission! And watching ladybugs eat them..oh man its like a horror movie! I love watching aphids die. My neighbors never do a thing about all their fruit trees so one side of my yard has aphids like crazy! My fingers are stained a greenish orange from all the aphid squishing I do.

Hey Toni, Yeah, I mulch my inground citrus (I am in N. CA), but we here in West have a very dry climate with NO RAIN at all for around 6 months of the year. I mulch for water conservation and weed prevention only (I hate hate hate pulling weeds), not for cold protection, which is what I think you are trying to do. In all honesty, since it gets pretty dry around here and if there is not a *very thick* layer of mulch it'll prolly dry out around the trunk quickly too and will sort of not really stay up around the trunk ( at least that is what I have experienced, using cocoa shell mulch--that's chocolate bean shells not coconut husk chips/CHCs--and plain old bark mulch) in a 2-3 inch layer or so...mmmmm these plants get good stuff, chocolate and coconut ;)....but in the off chance you do thrash your trunk-->well, that is potentially and probably fatal for the tree, so why risk it? I just sorta scoop the mulch back so its not really touching the trunk. Come to think, CHC's would be a good mulch if they didn't fly away when they dry out--too lightweight when they dry. Other motivation for my use of mulch is a feeble attempt to add organic matter to my nasty hard-as-a-stone clay CA soil...does "adobe brick" mean anything to you.... I think with winter weather protection you are to mulch high on the tree and then take it down when the weather warms. Probably, freezing temps would inhibit the growth of these fungi and you needn't worry, but I can only speculate, someone else will know better that I. Sounds like you've been doing pretty good so far. I'm gonna go have a Almond Joy candy bar now....lol HTH, not my screen name :)

Fire Ants, as I understand, are simply bad, and since they are non native people where they are need to control them. The single best place I have found to learn about them is Texas A & M since most every other source of information I have seen uses the information developed by the researchers at TAMU. The other ants clean up our environment, working on the bits and pieces of "waste" material we through down, cleaning up the dead bodies of other insects, etc. Ants are not known to be major pollinators. Here is a link that might be useful: Fire Ants

Hey Bumble, just wanted to tell you that you were right about the pricing on the sweaters above. Quality wise I would say the regular price should have been between $60 and $85 (about what I paid). The sale price should have been less. No way are the sweaters in a quality range of $164 regular retail as stated. Saying that though they fit short wasted me perfectly and have a casual sliming elegance about them. They also flow nicely and are made well. The fabric is very light though, really too light to call it a sweater. If I did not live in Florida I would be disappointed but would say they are perfect for mildly cool evening here. In short, I do not feel I got ripped off but I did not score the deal of the century. I would give the sweaters 4 1/2 stars out of five because they fit my needs. The gray FDJ jeans were a big hit and are the most comfortable best fitting jeans I have every owned in my life. The "find your fit" check list on the FDJ sites was perfect for picking the right jeans for body shape. My husband was oozing with complements over the gray jean gray sweater getup. I'm seriously thinking of springing for the FDJ dark wash jeans at the high regular price...even though I have never been much of a jean person I love the comfort and fit of these. At 52 I think the splurge is worth feeling sexy in jeans.