pond in progress started 4/21/10

[j.w]

Addy that sounds just awful what those pretty little flowers did to you. If they are all over the place and you need to get rid of them maybe you could hire a kid or someone to dig them all out or maybe a good shot of vinegar on a hot sunny day will go to the roots and kill them. Just be careful not to get it on other plants or it will kill them also. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[addy1]

Mark said to roundup them, but the problem is if they die and I go to remove the dead plants the spines will still be there, just like dead poison ivy, smack me again. He is offering to go around and yank them, toss in plastic bag for me. I will have to watch for baby plants from now on, remove quickly.

 

[j.w]

That sounds like about the only way to get rid of them and nice of Mark to do that for you. Hope there is not a zillion of them out there.

 

[addy1]

There is not a ton of plants, my sweetie says he is going out today to pull them out, put into a plastic bag for me. This is miserable, guess I am allergic to maryland and maryland plants.............lol

 

[capewind]

Thanks Addy, that was quite the list of plants. We did noticed this summer that the bees LOVED our curlie mint... Maybe I should tell him to throw a couple of kiddie pools out near the hive for mint ... We've had excess parrots feather neglected in a kiddie pool for well over a year, and the rains have kept enough water in there for those to be happy ...

 

[addy1]

Now my poor little baby stepped on a yellow jacket, she went to roll an apple, so she could carry it, there was a wasp on it. I usually get to the apple first to check for stingers. Watching her carefully for any bad reactions.

 

[capewind]

Ouch ... Ive only had one dog get stung and have a reaction, and it really wasnt as bad as it looked ... she got nailed right on the side of the muzzle and it ballooned up horribly ... cant remember what we gave her now, but thankfully the swelling only lasted a few days ...

 

[addy1]

She is restless, holding her paw up, but ow looks ok. Darn yellow jackets, I have been stung around 20 times since moving here, one time 15 at once. The pain is horrible, just can't tell her that. I soaked her paw in aloe vera gel, think it helped. i can give her baby benadryl, but need to make sure she does not have any reaction first.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Poor little Missy! First you and the flowers, now little Missy, can't imagine the little sweetie in pain, good thing your such a attentive "mom"!

 

[addy1]

She is doing better than me, seems the limping/whimpering/crying has already gone away.
If I could get rid of this reaction as fast as she recovered I would be a lot better off.

 

[j.w]

Poor you and poor little Missy! Darn yellow jackets are dangerous this time of the year. Think they know it is the end of Summer and don't want to go peacefully. Sometimes when we bring firewood into the house in winter we bring in a sleeping one and they awaken and fly around the house.

 

[addy1]

I had not seen any yellow jackets until recently, ended up with two underground nests, one right next to where I mow, near the driveway, the other in my side garden I was grooming when I ran into the dangerous man eating flowers............... luckily I saw them flying before I yanked out that clump of grass, I was just ready to dig it up. They need to go, I do need to groom the plants in there, not the man eating flowers though. I read if you have reactions to poison ivy you can also have reactions to plants like the black eyed susan, so I guess I am the lucky one. My left arm is swollen, red, blisters, a little less swollen than yesterday so slowly recovering. My right arm has long swipes of red and blisters but not swollen like the left. One more thing on my list of don't touch!

I would rather let them live but they chase me, sting me, sting my child, so they have to go. Just a few weeks ago I was walking though the bog and one stung the back of my knee 3 times before I could get away.

 

[j.w]

Hope there are no more plants there that could hurt you. Not fun to find them by trial and error. Hope you are feeling better today. We don't see the ground bees here on our property but have had them in the other house we lived in. A little neighbor kid came over and discovered them the bad way. He was bitten many times. Now we just have the ones that build nests up under the eaves of our roof. I knock those down that I can reach right when they start building. I leave the ones that aren't in our area's that we use day to day. Bad thing about the ground bees is you don't know they are there till they have multiplied.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes, get rid of those mean yellow jackets, save little cute missy any more pain. She is so tiny that I think if she had several bites it might kill her!!

 

[addy1]

They will be deleted, honey going out in the am when it is cool and spray the nests. They do an aggressive gang attack once they get fired up. I ran into a nest of them last year in my veg garden, had no clue they were there until I had both arms and chest covered with the suckers.