We have a small canopy over our front door and I noticed a small nest forming. It is a favorite place for flying insects to build a nest. Often it has been wasps, but this year, it was yellow jackets. There is a perennial bed 5ft from the front door. It had not gotten very big yet, less than 6 inches across, my husband just knocked it down with a yardstick and managed to get off without a sting. I anticipate every year there is going to be a nest there, but I was watchful in the spring. This nest started in July and by then I wasn't paying attention. I wonder if there is something organic I can coat the surface of, in those corners where they always start that might discourage them from building? Vinegar? Soap? A spray of garlic/red pepper that would hopefully dry on the surface? But I would imagine it would diminish it's effect in a short amount of time.

Howdy! The link that you provided might be a little misleading. The photo that is shown is of a bracket that had a hummer build her nest on it, the nest is not included. What you get is a Y shaped metal bracket with a small piece of cotton attached at the crotch to help attract a hummer to build her nest there. Anyways, depending on where you live some hummers are already done building their nests for this year. That is the case with the Ruby Throats here in the North East. There might be nests with babies that have not fledged yet, but the nests were built weeks ago. Some species are better at using that bracket than others too. I would think chances are small to get a hummer to build on it, but you might get lucky. There are a few webcams out there showing active hummer nests. Perhaps you could get permission from them to stream the video to your museum..

I had ants destroy a Bird of Paradise last summer. Get rid of the ants. don't overspray. keep after them every couple of days and you'll eventually wash them out.

katinka-katinka: "There was a case near me where a buyer sued a real estate agent for saying that the house was in one town, but really wan't. I actually think the buyer lost, but I'm guessing real estate agents don't want to open themselves up to something like that." By any chance..was that the one in Montville? I followed that law suit...and I actually sided with the RE on that one...if I recall correctly, if you looked on a map, it was clear the property was in the Towaco section of Montville Township...not the Montville section.... If so, this link below seems to indicate that the buyers won...although IMO, that is a BIG stretch of the consumer fraud act...when in NJ thousands of people donÂt have an an address that reflects the town in which they live... We live in a municipality of one name...in a village of a different name within that municipality. There is no mail delivery to homes from our village post officeÂ..its too tiny....so our mailing address is that of the adjacent borough. However, we DO have our very own tiny village zip code...but any mail delivered to that zip code requires a PO Box. To complicate things further, there are two municipalities with our municipality's name in NJ....in two different counties...so we have found our name listed under the one in the other countyÂ.at least 50 miles away. Our phone lines come out of the nearest small city...so on various internet phone directories, we are listed as living in that city. Also, Âour mailing address zip code of the adjacent borough is ALSO the zip code of the next municipality over. The other municipality mailing address zip code is that of another borough altogether.....so, we have seven different names to deal with... This is why I sided with the REA in this one. :-) NJ Âgreat place to live if you are in the witness protection programÂLOL! Here is a link that might be useful: Misrepresentation of Location of House Can be Violation of Consumer Fraud Act