The mosquitos are terrible in Oklahoma this summer. Our backyard has been absolutely overrun by the little bloodsuckers. A couple of weeks ago I attemped to repair a section of our fence that the wind knocked down. Before I could even reach the fence, I had seven mosquitos biting my left leg and five on the right. We sprayed the entire yard and hung repellent, and it seems to have worked. Our swimming pool became the final resting place for hundreds of the little buggers, and we spent several days in a row scooping them out with a net.
The mosquitos have been replaced by flies. It’s not unusual in the summer to see a fly or two hovering around our outdoor trash bins, but last weekend I saw fifty or more, and based on what I found inside the bin it appears they were doing more than eating garbage. When I brought our trash bins back up from the street today I discovered they were full of maggots.
I’ll be honest — most of my maggot knowledge came from The Lost Boys and Poltergeist, so you can probably understand why I wasn’t excited about dealing with them. Multiple Google results advised me to pour pots of boiling water into the bins. Most of those same pages suggested secondary actions, like pouring bleach into the bins or spraying the insides with a mixture of water and vinegar, but they all agreed on the boiling water, so that’s what I did first. If nothing else, it was a cheap solution. Fortunately, maggots don’t make a noise when you pour scalding water over them, and the process of making maggot stew wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. Once the deed was done I sprayed the bins clean using our garden hose and let them dry. For now, they’re clean and maggot free.
Every night we scoop June bugs (usually dead) and frogs (usually alive) out of the pool. We’ve got owls and hawks hanging out nightly in the trees behind our house. We sprayed for mosquitos and flies, and today I killed hundreds of maggots. I almost ended this post by saying “what else you got?” before remembering that I’ve only seen one snake so far this year.
Blech. The words “indoor pool” are starting to seem like a good solution for this…
Ok, the maggot stew comment made me gag… but imdid laugh at I’ve only seen one snake,this summer! Earlier in the summer, or maybe it was May, We found a small rat snake curled up in the garage. Or I should say, Matthew found it and screamed like a little girl when he did so. Lol… the little guy was extremely cold and not moving. Matthew thought he was dead. I said nope, he’s almost a goner though. I took him out and put him in the front yard under one of the trees hoping he would warm up and then slither on his way. Matthew wa Ted to know EXACTLY where I put it as he is terribly afraid of snakes, hence the screaming like a little girl when he found it! Sadly, I was too late in putting him out in the warm sun. He was still where I left him the next morning when Matthew left for work. I hope you don’t encounter any more snakes this summer. If you do, please don’t scream like a little,girl. The snakes are just here doing their jobs of ridding our places of residence of pests like mice, rates and insects. Enjoy your pool!