ThermaCELL mosquito repellent provides an odorless 15’ x 15’ mosquito-free zone around you wherever you go. The butane cartridge inside the unit vaporizes the insecticide on the repellent pad to provide protection in a matter of minutes. ThermaCELL mosquito appliances are available at The Home Depot.

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• When It Comes to Mosquitoes, Which Repellent Works Best?
• Mosquito-Free Yard
• (694) Room with a View, Part 1

Find out how household products from baby shampoo and corn syrup to sugar and soft drinks can be used to nurture plants and improve the soil in your garden.

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• How to Clean Your Home Naturally Using Common Household Products

It’s a magical feeling to encounter a graceful deer, peacefully browsing in the early dawn . . . unless your beloved hostas are what’s for breakfast! Whether you live in the country or the city, foraging deer can cause significant damage to landscapes and vegetable gardens. Unfortunately, “deer-proofing” is virtually impossible, but there are steps you can take to discourage deer and minimize the damage.

Deer Repellents

Deer are prey animals by nature, and deer repellents take advantage of that by producing unpleasant or startling scents, sounds, sights, or flavors. Because they’re always on the lookout for predators, deer are very alert and easily startled, and they’ll run away (or avoid an area) when faced with a threat or questionable situation.

Tender plants such as hostas are irresistible to deer.

Repellents are temporary solutions – in time, deer will get used to any repellent, so you’ll need to change things up in order to keep it working. Ideas for DIY deer repellents and deterrents include:

Scent Repellents

• Scented soap: One of the easiest and most popular methods. Shave a few bars of strongly-scented soap (such Irish Spring or Cashmere Bouquet) and scatter the shavings around the garden. This is a great use for travel soap samples!


Scented soap as repellent.

• Human hair: Available from barber shops, human hair can be sprinkled around or hung from branches in cheesecloth bags or nylon stockings.
• Predator urine: You can order predator urine sprays (such as fox or coyote), and some gardeners send meat-eating humans outdoors to “mark the territory,” too.
• Eggs: Mix a beaten egg into a quart of water and spray plants and surrounding areas.
• Baby powder: Sprinkle on or around plants.
• Scented fabric softener sheets: Cut into strips and tie to branches or fence posts.
• Blood meal: Sprinkle around plants or beds.
• Hot pepper powder or sauce: Spray or sprinkle directly on or around plants. Some gardeners add garlic or curry powder, too.
• Milorganite: This commercial fertilizer is made from treated sewage sludge, giving it an odor unpleasant to deer. It can be hung in net bags around the garden.
• Commercial repellent sprays or granules: Available at garden centers, commercial repellents often contain a combination of unpleasant smells and flavors.

Visual and Noise Deterrents

• Bamboo fountains: Originally designed as “deer chasers” for Japanese gardens, bamboo fountains make a knocking sound when the water dumps out, which serves as a great auditory deterrent.
• Metal cans or pie pans: Hang in groups where they will reflect light and rattle in a breeze.


Japanese “Deer Chaser.”

• Tin foil or Mylar: Can be hung in strips to sparkle and reflect light. Mylar strips can also be strung from two posts or branches, where they will make a buzzing sound when caught by the wind.
• Dogs: Dogs are great garden protectors if you can keep them safely contained (and if they don’t add to the problem by digging up your garden!).
• Trail blocks: Once you’ve located common deer trails, even a wheelbarrow blocking the path can deter them for a day or two. Deer are habitual animals, and they’ll steer clear of an obstacle until they’re sure it’s safe.
• Plant netting: Green bird or plant netting can be used to protect shrubs and trees and can be used as row covers for veggie gardens. Drape it directly over the plants or on a simple wood or PVC frame.

Commercial Deterrents

If you live in a rural area or have a large farm or orchard to protect, you may want to step things up a notch. Commercial deer repellents include:

• Explosive devices (producing a gunshot-like sound)
• Ultrasonic devices
• Motion-controlled strobe lights and whistles

These aren’t recommended for home gardens because they’re expensive and can disturb neighbors.

Deer repellents often work on other prey animals like rabbits.

Tips for Using Deer Repellents

Which deer repellent works the best? The answer is probably “none of them,” (or “all of them,” depending on your perspective). Any of these methods can work temporarily, but you’ll need to change them up often in order for them to keep working.

• Scented or flavored repellents should be reapplied every few days, especially after a hard rain.
• Visual repellents should be moved around and changed frequently.
• Keep experimenting! Some gardeners swear by a favorite method, and others try it to no effect. Find what works in your garden, and be adaptable.
• Deer repellents work best in relatively small home landscapes when deer populations and damage are in the low to moderate range.
• If the deer in your area are gutsy or hungry enough, or if deer populations are large, they’ll overcome their fears and eat almost anything. In that case, you may need to consider fencing (at least 8′ tall) to protect your garden.

Further Information

• Deer Repellent Study (a great review of commercial and homemade deer repellents by the Illinois Walnut Council)
• Deer Off (Havahart)
• Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellent (Liquid Fence Company)
• Plantskydd Deer Repellent (Tree World)
• PredatorPee (sells urine from a variety of predatory animals)
• Home Garden Use of Milorganite® (Cornell Waste Management Institute)
• Milorganite® Lawn and Garden Products

Related posts:

• How to Landscape Your Yard with Deer-Resistant Plants

What type of ‘weed-n-feed’ can I use that’s safe for St. Augustine grass? I’d like to apply it this fall, and I’m having a hard time finding a product labeled for use on my lawn. -Joe

As you’ve likely discovered, many broadleaf weed killers also harm St. Augustine grass. There are a few herbicides available that are rated for St. Augustine, but most of them are weed control only, not weed and feed.

A couple of thoughts about weed-and-feed products:

• Unless you live in a frost-free climate, you should stop using any fertilizers at least six weeks before your average first frost date. St. Augustine is a warm-season grass that goes dormant for the winter, and you don’t want to stimulate growth that can be killed by frost. Weed-and-feed products are best reserved for spring and summer in these types of lawns.
• The most common herbicide for St. Augustine lawns is Atrazine. Simply put, Atrazine is nasty stuff. It’s known to cause cancer and birth defects, and it’s showing up at alarming levels in drinking water. One look at the stern warnings on the label should make you think twice about putting it on your lawn!
• A healthy lawn is naturally weed-resistant. If you have a widespread weed problem, focus instead on getting your lawn healthy, or on replacing the unhealthy lawn with groundcover or planting beds.

To help decide which herbicide to use on your lawn, check out Managing Weeds in Warm Season Lawns by Clemson University Extension. It includes a table that matches grass and weed types to herbicides with specific product names.

Further Information

• Atrazine (Extension Toxicology Network)
• How to Control Weeds in Your Lawn
• Fall Lawn Care Guide

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• How to Control Bermuda Grass
• When and How to Fertilize Centipede Grass
• How to Control Crabgrass

What’s the least toxic way to get rid of weeds in my gravel driveway? I’d rather not use harsh chemicals, but there are too many to pull them up by hand. -BJ

Because you’re weeding a gravel area, you have the advantage of not having to worry about killing desirable grasses or garden plants, and less of the product will come into contact with garden soil. Nevertheless, everything we do in the garden has some impact on the environment, so you’re wise to minimize the use of chemicals. Here are some ideas:

• Barriers: The next time you replenish the gravel in your driveway, consider putting down landscape fabric or plastic first, to prevent weeds from sprouting through the gravel. You can also put barriers around the edges, to help keep weeds and grasses from creeping out of your lawn.
• Heat: To kill weeds using heat, carefully pour boiling water directly on the plant. Or, you could try using a small blowtorch or paint stripping heat gun to crisp the weeds in your gravel.
• Vinegar or Soap: Vinegar and herbicidal soaps kill (by drying out) all vegetation in their paths, but they are thought to kill beneficial microbes and sterilize soil. This is less of an issue in your gravel drive, although you should consider that some of the product will run off into drainage areas.
• Herbicides: If you resort to organic or chemical herbicides to control weeds in your drive, you can minimize the environmental impact by carefully painting the liquid directly on the leaves, or by using a shield to target the weeds.

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• How to Install a Gravel Driveway
• Earthworms Taking Over Driveway
• How to Control Bermuda Grass

OK, perhaps I divulge too much, but what can I be if not honest? In a perfect convergence of circumstances, my recent love-fest with seasonal fresh peaches provided—in addition to sweet peachy bliss—a perfect laboratory for trying out a homemade gnat trap.

I prefer not to refrigerate my fruits and vegetables, which means that from time to time I encounter gnats and fruit flies. It happens. This particular evening, the culprit was the last lonely peach in the bowl, and the invasion was bad enough that simply throwing away the peach wasn’t enough to get rid of the flies.

I don’t know about you, but that just wouldn’t do. Fruit flies might unlock the secrets of genetics, but I don’t want them in my kitchen. So, I put out a homemade trap of white vinegar, with a few drops of dish soap stirred in. The vinegar attracts the flies, and the soap alters the surface tension and keeps them from flying back out.

As you can see, the trap worked like a charm! The flies were all over the glass within seconds. Within an hour, there were ten or so dead ones, and by morning there was not a fruit fly left standing.

This is a great indoor/outdoor solution for getting rid of fruit flies, fungus gnats, and other tiny insects that buzz around decaying plant matter. As an added bonus, vinegar is a natural deodorizer, so you cleanse the air of both the bugs and the smell of whatever attracted them in the first place.

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• How to Control Gnats Outdoors

My back yard is infested with gnats, and it’s driving me nuts! I have a dog, so I want to be careful about what products I use. Could you please help? -Trisha

While we frequently use the word “gnats” to refer to any number of tiny winged insects (such as biting midges, punkies, and no see ums), true fungus gnats are small nonbiting insects that are drawn to wet, rotten organic matter where they lay their eggs and soon hatch into larvae. In general, they are relatively harmless creatures, but their incessant swarming is annoying enough to drive even the toughest of gardeners indoors.

Like mosquitoes, gnats can be difficult to control, because the problem may go beyond your property line. It’s pretty hard to deal with any insect in your own yard if they’re flying in from a nearby lake or farm, and some parts of the world seem to be overrun during the warmer months.

A little vanilla extract on the brim of your hat acts as a “natural” gnat repellent.

Take these steps to make your yard less inviting to gnats:

• Keep your garden free of mold, fungus, and rotting plant debris. Pay particular attention to shady areas with poor air circulation. Put your compost pile as far from the house as you can, cover your trash cans, and keep fallen debris cleaned up.
• Amend your garden soil to improve drainage.
• Occasionally rake or turn your mulch to allow sodden, moldy layers to dry out.
• Avoid overwatering, and allow enough time between waterings for the top layer of soil to dry out.
• Water in the morning to avoid overnight fungal growth.
• Make sure you have no standing water in gutters, drainage areas, or low spots.
• Keep birdbaths and water features clean.
• If your garden still has naturally damp areas, you can top dress the soil with an inch (or less) of sand, to discourage gnats looking for moist soil.
• Use sodium light bulbs in outdoor areas to reduce attraction at night.

Mulch is great for holding in moisture, but it shouldn’t be moldy or soggy.

To address existing infestations, here are some other ideas:

• BTi (Bacillus thuringiensis v israelensis), also known as Gnatrol, is a bacteria that effectively kills gnat larvae. It is most suitable if you can identify specific areas where gnat larvae are actively hatching and feeding.
• Beneficial nematodes and predatory insects can provide long-term control of larvae once established in the garden.
• Traps including liquid traps, sticky traps, and electronic insect devices can help control gnats in areas where the adult insects are swarming.

Homemade gnat control trap.

• Repellents: DEET, citronella, vanilla, pine oil, and dryer sheets are commonly used to repel gnats. You can also use fans on your porch to keep the air moving and discourage hovering swarms. There are also a number of repellent sprays, lanterns, and granules on the market that claim to repel gnats with varying degrees of effectiveness or toxicity.
• Chemical controls: Foggers, sprays, and insecticides designed for flying insects will work with gnats, although they’re not particularly effective in preventing future infestations. Prevention is more effective, and less toxic, than chemical controls.

A variety of organic gnat control products, including repellents and predatory insects, can be found at your local garden center or at online retailers such as Planet Natural and Golden Harvest Organics.

If you’re not sure what sort of insect you’re dealing with, or if you’re being bitten, you may find it helpful to contact your local agricultural extension service for advice specific to your region. Information and helpful photos about identifying gnats and other flying insects can be found at doyourownpestcontrol.com

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Blossom-end rot is a troublesome condition caused by calcium deficiency. It’s easily identifiable as a soggy patch on the bottom (blossom end) of the fruit, which grows into a sunken, round, brownish or black area that soon becomes leathery and moldy. Blossom end rot affects primarily calcium-loving vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.

Blossom-end rot becomes a common problem when we over fertilize our young plants, then subject them to hot summer drought and inadequate watering. Between the drought, the flush of growth, and the overload of competing nutrients, calcium doesn’t stand a chance of getting properly absorbed by the plant. While some soils are actually deficient in calcium, more often we’ve created conditions that prevent the plant from absorbing it.

This condition is not caused by bacteria or fungus, it’s not contagious, and it doesn’t kill the plant, so there’s hope for recovery. Remove and discard only the affected fruits, and focus on getting your plant healthy. Here’s how to prevent and treat blossom end rot:

• The most important defense against blossom end rot is keeping your plants evenly watered! Make sure they get an inch of water per week and that they are not subjected to extremes of drought or soaking.
• Use mulch to even out soil moisture.
• Avoid overfeeding with chemical fertilizers as well as excess nitrogen. Use natural compost tea or balanced organic fertilizers instead.
• Plant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in high-quality soil with plenty of organic matter. Some gardeners add a spoonful of lime, a handful of crushed eggshells, or other calcium supplement to the planting hole as a preventative measure.
• Do a soil test to determine if your soil is deficient in calcium. Follow the recommendations of the soil test to correctly balance your soil.
• In an emergency, you can purchase calcium sprays that are applied directly to the foliage and can help get your plants back on track. In general, though, you’re better off preventing the problem through proper plant care.

Further Information

• Blossom-End Rot of Tomatoes (Oregon State)
• Blossom-End Rot of Tomato (Integrated Pest Management)
• Blossom End Rot of Tomatoes and Other Vegetables (South Dakota Extension)

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• How to Fertilize Plants with Epsom Salts
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My chrysanthemums are being attacked by a reddish brown beetle which buries itself in the soil until after dark, then proceeds to devour the foliage at night. What can I do? -Dorothy

It sounds like your mums are being attacked by Asiatic garden beetles. These nocturnal beetles are about 3/8” long with a reddish-cinnamon color. They emerge in mid to late summer to feed on the leaves and flowers of many types of plants, including chrysanthemums.

Like Japanese beetles and other garden beetles, Asiatic garden beetles are difficult to control once the adults have moved in for the season. Here are some things to try:

• Manual control: This means hand-picking the adult beetles and drowning them in soapy water. Asiatic garden beetles can be caught by hunting them in the garden at night, or by catching them as they congregate on lit-up windows and screen doors.
• Biological grub control: Asiatic garden beetle larvae fall into the common category of “white grubs.” If you have a serious infestation, your best bet may be to work on controlling these grubs, which hatch and feed underground in the early spring before emerging as adult beetles in midsummer. Several biological controls are available to control white grubs in turf grass, including predatory nematodes and bacterial agents. Plow up your vegetable and flower gardens as early as possible in the spring, to expose the grubs to hungry birds.
• Chemical control: While there are some pesticides registered for control of Asiatic garden beetles, chemical controls are generally considered pretty ineffective against adult beetle populations. They also harm other insects and birds, and can be harmful to humans and pets as well. If you choose this route, read the labels carefully to get the product that will create the least collateral damage.
• Protect your garden: Use row covers to protect vegetables from feeding adults in late summer. Handpick any feeding adults you find. In the fall, clean up your garden and plow under (or compost) garden debris, to reduce populations of overwintering eggs. Keep your lawn healthy and thick to reduce grub infestations.

Further Information

• Asiatic Garden Beetles (University of New Hampshire Extension)
• Photo of Asiatic Garden Beetle (Tree of Life Web Project)

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In general, wasps are beneficial predator insects in the garden, but sometimes they can be attracted to areas that are too close for human comfort. When wasps are in and around lawn grasses, it is usually due to one of three reasons:

1. They are preying on insects or larvae in the lawn soil. Digger wasps, for instance, often fly low over lawns in the mornings, looking for grubs and larvae. They are considered beneficial insects and generally can be left alone.
2. They are seeking sugar through fallen fruit, spilled food or drinks, or aphid “honeydew.” We’ve all experienced wasps buzzing around our outdoor picnics, but some lawns also become covered with natural sugars as fruits and berries ripen and fall.
3. They are nesting or burrowing. Cicada killers are common ground-burrowing wasps that may be spotted by the tiny piles of soil outside the burrows. Many types of wasps, including cicada killers, are solitary creatures, so their nests will be more difficult to spot than the large colonies of their more social relatives.

Here are some ways to reduce or deal with nuisance wasps in your lawn and garden:

• Keep trash cans covered.
• Rinse out recyclables before putting them outside.
• Don’t leave open or spilled food (including pet food) or drink outdoors.
• Rake up and throw away fallen fruit and berries.
• Keep your compost pile turned to bury attractive food wastes.
• Keep your lawn healthy, and mow it high. A thick, dense lawn defends itself against ground-burrowing wasps and other insect or grub infestations.
• If wasps are out hunting for lawn-destroying grubs and larvae, leave them alone (and thank them for providing organic pest control!).

There are many different types of wasps, and in order to address your problem it would be most helpful to identify what sort of wasp you have. For help identifying bees and wasps in your lawn and garden, check out What’s Buzzin’ in My Garden? at Pollinator.com.

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