DE isn't harmful to the lungs unless you make a point of fluffing it into a cloud and then inhaling it. DE from fresh-water sources (Food grade) is less irritating to the lungs than DE from salt-water sources. You can use one of those common dust masks if you want. I've used DE on our version of the fire ant, the thatch ant. I tried everything I could think of: boiling water, vinegar, bleach, poisoned sugar water, poisoned meat. I got a pound of DE and sprinkled it over the mounds. It slowed them down, but didn't stop them. Then I found a fifty-pound bag of DE for $15 and got it. Since DE is quite light, it's a BIG bag. I took a 3-lb coffee can and coated the mounds with DE half an inch thick. If it didn't penetrate their carapace, by golly, I was gonna make 'em CHOKE on it! Well, I guess I had put it on thick enough (!) so all the ants were forced to wade through it and take it into the nest area to the queen. It got them, and they haven't come back. And I see no mounds anywhere else, either (in the past, I had annoyed them so they moved). The stuff is cheap, and non-toxic to earthworms, bees, pets and kids. It's safe to eat, and it even contains trace amounts of desirable minerals. It works by sucking the moisture from the insects' bodies, including fleas and cockroaches. If you looked at DE under a microscope, you would swear you were looking at sharp shards of glass. Some information says it takes one to three days to kill the insects. DE only works when it is dry. And because it acts physically, not chemically, the insects can't become resistant to it. To make sure you're getting the non-toxic kind, make sure it says something like CODEX FOOD GRADE. Call around to your local farm supply stores -- some of them should carry it, as farmers like to mix it with grain and feed it to their livestock, as it's also supposed to help keep flies down. NEVER get the kind that is mixed with an insecticide, or the kind that is used for swimming pool filters. Stick to the food grade kind. Sue

Also, snails are not necessarily pests. If you crush them up, you fish will love to eat the fresh meat they provide. A fish tank, regardless of what is in it, should never be in sunlight as the refraction of the glass or plastic hightens the rats of the sun to an unhealthy nature. A tank is not a pond or natural body of water. Light through plastic or glass creates an unatural energy source with odd results. A Betta is very comfortable on a shelf or quiet place with minimal light. Also,. When you clean the tank, every once in awhile (like bi monthly) put the Betta in a cup or bowl of the tank water (roughly 40 to 60% of the original amount) stir up the gravel a bit to release the bacteria that's building up down there with your hand. Usually a cloud of brown will be seen. Empty out that water about half of that water but not all (remember, bacteria is not as completely a bad thing). Then fiill the tank back up with fresh water and pour the fish back in with the original water it was in... Fish love fresh water, but they need some bacteria in their tank to be healthy. Also, and this is important, temperature is important as you don't want the fish to go into shock from a sudden temperature change. Think about your own body when you do this. If you are in a room that is comfortable temperaturewise, then you enter a freezing or hot room, your body reacts. Use your sense of touch when gauging whether the tap water is close in temperature to the original. If needed you can use a thermometer but I have never found that necessary. It sounds more complicated than it actually is. Just think of your fish as a living being that needs the same things you do.

Thanks for the reassurance. I actually found more in one of my raised beds this morning. Just getting back into gardening after being gone for a few years. Glad I found this forum. I had success my first year in the house back in 95 but slowly got too busy to give the time and TLC needed. I'm going to give it a try again and will probably be asking more questions as I go. And yes here in Chandler we have had more rain then normal!

Okay Marilyn, this is the 'possum story. On New Year's morning, about 1 am, we woke up cold. My husband got up to see why, and the back door had blown open (in Texas even locked doors can blow open with our gentle breezes). He shut it and was heading back to bed when he glimpsed movement toward the study. Thinking it was the cat, he kept going to the bed, where our cat was sleeping on the quilt (a watchcat, she isn't). He checked, and there was a full grown possum wandering around the study (looking for something to read?). He started shooing the possum back to the door (shut) and trying to get the door open and the possum convinced to leave. He finally set up a slalom course with chairs to guide the possum out. When he came back to bed, I asked him what happened and he told me. Half asleep, I replied, "Well, thank heavens it wasn't a skunk." He couldn't get back to sleep for quite a while. Your husband would love Texas!