Rice weevil mayhem.

[flowerbug]

greenhouse guy uses a full mask and respirator when he smokes his greenhouses. breathing sulphur fumes is bad on the lungs.

 

[Messybun]

Hmmmm. I like bio security. I don’t allow anyone to sweep the spider webs from my barn because they collect mosquitoes which don’t get to bite my chickens and get them sick. My first thought would be ,’what eats weevils that I can put up with?’ I have once intentionally infested my house with geckos to take care of a nasty problem I had when I accepted a piece of furniture from someone without thinking. And that might not be a bad idea. Of course I would probably be the one throwing in a few dozen chickens to hurry up and clean house. But maybe you can fumigate them.

As far as I’ve read these weevils are not native. So no natural predators I can find. But I love your thinking. I’ve had snakes move in to take care of my mice in the feed shed and been very happy to leave them alone!

 

[flowerbug]

yes, i haven't sprayed any insect killers inside the house at all, ever. outside once in a while Mom uses the hornet sprays which are hideous poisons i won't use them, instead i go out when it is cool in the morning and remove the nests. the raccoons will go around and find hornet nests in the many rocks we have. also hornets will help with some caterpillar worm type pests. so i'm ok tolerating them as long as they aren't actively attacking me.

inside the house we have the small cellar spiders which will hang out in some corners, we also have some jumping spiders and the active hunting wolf spiders. in my worm buckets i have some tiny spiders for controlling the fungus gnats that sometimes want to kick off a population explosion. since i started using the small spiders for control i've not had any new population explosions so it is working out great.

if anyone wants to try these spiders out go find a forest floor with some leaf piles and other detritus and you may be able to find some small spiders in your area that will work out. these spiders are so tiny they can't even bite you. i came across them one day when i was harvesting humus and thought i'd give them a try. well worth the experiment.

 

[Medicine Woman]

Well gecko and guinea fowl aren’t native to my area but I have them. Think....dinosaurs.

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

Biting flies don't land on zebra print. You can find zebra print sleeves, jackets, blankets, etc for goats, sheep and horses. I haven't seen a fly mask for goats, but they make them for cows and horses. I modified sheep tubes to fit my dogs! I wear a lot of zebra print in summer. I wear a zebra print scarf over my head and neck when I walk in summer to keep the biting flies off of me. They don't even circle my head when I wear it!

Pic from google/pinterest

View attachment 17911

Help Your Horse Get His Zebra On

Find out why your horse’s next flysheet should be zebra print.

horse-canada.com

so good to know!!!! the biting flies were so bad out this way last year! I wonder why they don't like it....the research starts

 

[baymule]

Zebra print! I never would’ve thought of that on a hundred years!

 

[Messybun]

so good to know!!!! the biting flies were so bad out this way last year! I wonder why they don't like it....the research starts

The way a fly’s eyes work is distorted on zebra print so they can’t figure out how far away or where to land on the animal.

 

[Messybun]

Speaking of the original weevils, I noticed that the forecast was supposed to freeze in the next few days. The last cold snap seems to have killed them all off and I didn’t have to deal with sulfur smoke. Win win.

 

[flowerbug]

As far as I’ve read these weevils are not native. So no natural predators I can find. But I love your thinking. I’ve had snakes move in to take care of my mice in the feed shed and been very happy to leave them alone!

i hope you can find something that will work/help!

 

[tortoise]

Speaking of the original weevils, I noticed that the forecast was supposed to freeze in the next few days. The last cold snap seems to have killed them all off and I didn’t have to deal with sulfur smoke. Win win.

what a relief! I think I will always live in a climate with freezing weather because it controls insects