Most of the year the pests are problems with the plants in the garden, but recently they’re more bothersome on the people and animals in our area.

We’ve had a terrible time with ticks. Nearly every time we’ve been hiking, we picked them off someone, or found them in the house afterwards. This weekend, the boys and I went hiking in the beautiful Sun Canyon area not far from here, and even though I doused our clothes with a DEET based spray, we still found a tick in the car and my husband picked one off of the cartilage of my ear in the afternoon. This morning, I held the halter of my horse while he grazed in the tall grass for maybe 15 minutes. When I returned home, I noticed a tick on my shoe. Friends also found ticks on their kids from playing in the shelter belt. This makes me want to take a shower every time I go outdoors.

Dealing with ticks

The best way to deal with these pests, particularly in a year with such heavy populations, is to be very vigilant. Wear light colored clothing whenever you can, use DEET based sprays, or the clothing with the permethrin imbued into the fabric. When you return home from a hike, or working outdoors, remove your clothes and put it directly in the wash, then hop in the shower. And keep your eyes peeled. So many of the ticks we’ve found happen long after we’ve returned home.

Flying Pests control

Flies are another big issue at this time of the year. Yesterday at the barn we were discussing practical fly management techniques to utilize this summer so we’re not overrun. Many of us will hang the individual fly traps in our stalls, and be extra vigilant in keeping our stalls clean. Several of us are talking about putting up the baggies with pennies, too.

In addition, the barn managers ran a very interesting new-to-me product called fly roll tape over the stalls. It’s very innocuous looking, and truthfully, it took me a little time to figure out what they were looking at when they said they strung the fly roll tape! This is ideal for barns and garden sheds because it hangs horizontally instead of vertically like the traditional fly tapes. I’m planning on using it on the porch near the picnic table, as well as near the chickens in the garden since that might be a source of additional flies this summer.

Yellowjackets and wasps

And finally yellowjackets and wasps are making the naughty list at this time. Our boys have made a concerted effort to eradicate as many nests as they can find using squirt guns and water balloons. I fried one last night when I fired up the grill. I didn’t even look before I ignited the burners. It was only later I noticed the little charred wasp nest. We’re also putting up a “Wasp-a-nator,” which is a fabric artificial wasp nest. The idea is you hang in near an area where you don’t want the wasps, and they’ll avoid it since they think another colony already took up residence. A friend who spent time in Belgium said they used to do the same thing with paper lunch bags. We’ll see how that works this year.

The nuisance people pests around the house and garden are ramping up this year. Although these won’t eat our vegetable plants, a fair number of them are so bothersome to us that it makes enjoying the outdoors difficult. When it comes to ticks, we’ll just have to be extra careful. But with the flies and flying stinging pests, I’m doing my best to outwit them so we can reclaim this beautiful time of the year.