Building The Love Shack

I sat down this morning and went through the emails and found this month’s questions seem to be one of my unfavorite subjects… Bugs…

So let’s get rid of them.

Question number one: Lacie, I noticed in some of your pictures your cottage seems to face a farmer field. We live in the country and get tons of spiders on the house every day. How are you getting rid of them?

I hate spiders. When we first got the cottage each day we were there I started out with sweeping off the cottage. I couldn’t even open the door. It looked like a bad Halloween decor.  I even carried a broom in the trunk of the car to be able to get in the door. Then one day my neighbor showed me a product to use.

We spray the cottage twice a season. The outsides and the dining tent both get sprayed. It doesn’t completely get rid of them but it’s about a 90% factor.  The product is called Ortho Home Defense.

 

 

Since we closed up most of the gaps in the house, got new windows and I close the door once the night starts to falls, I have had only a few in the house this year.

 

Question number two: Being by the water you must get a lot of wasps. How do you get rid of them?

We had a terrible problem with wasps in the first couple of years. Then one day I was at the Dollar Store and found these fake paper wasp that you put together and hang up. The research said if wasp sees another nest they won’t nest in that area.  So I bought one.

That was the best two dollars I had spent that year. The first year I hung the one by the door and it worked no more wasp nest being built by the door. This year I bought four of them and hung them on the dining tent. One in each corner.  I have not had one wasp nest all season.

 

 

Question number three:  I love your birdhouse collection you have started.  I have tried to have them in my garden but have had a problem with bees in the birdhouses. Do you have this problem and how do you stop it?

Bees love birdhouses. They are the perfect place to nest. High in the tree. A sturdy dry surface and the hole is a perfect entryway.

I too had a problem in the past with a birdhouse full of bees.  Recently I learned how to stop them from building a nest in the house without making the birdhouse a toxic place for baby birds.

Petroleum jelly. Good old fashion vaseline.

Take a very small amount of vaseline on a cloth and wipe the inside roof of the house. You should also place it on the upper inside of the roofline where the sides meet the roof but don’t bring it down the walls.  The bees hate it and can’t attach their building material to the surface, keeping your birdhouse for its invited guest.

 

 

As for all the questions about mosquitos, if I had an answer to that I would worth a billion dollars.  They love to bite me too and nothing I try to seem to last for very long. For that, I would love to hear what works for you.

 

Thank you again for your questions.  I love receiving the emails, the feedback, and the questions.

Lacie