I’m having an issue with my housemates. Warm weather is finally here and the bugs haven’t been too bad. We are actually experiencing rather dry conditions, which is shocking after the amount of snowfall we had earlier this year. The cooler nights have curtailed a lot of the insect nuisances but I resolutely have hung my magical “bug deterrent” above the sliding door. Don’t laugh, a baggie full of water and shiny pennies actually does work…or so I proclaim.
This door is flung wide and we inhabitants move with ease inside and out. Screens are not necessary and the air flows through from morning until night. There is “outside” furniture for lounging, and abundant water in the fountain. Alice and Skeedles need only their food bowls for a totally al fresco life-style.
My problem is the concept of “inside toys” and “outside toys;” it totally escapes them. Soft dog toys must be retrieved regularly from the deck and well gnawed bones are tossed from the living room out to the grass.
This problem recently played out in the post “Nuts to You” where Skeedles choice of outside toy was a live, and later dead, gray squirrel. I went into an in-depth discussion with her, explaining that beyond simple inside and outside toys, there are also inside critters vs. outside critters, and I get to decide who is who. She arched her back, squinted her eyes and smiled at me in total oblivion.
I regularly find birds in my loft office, they are usually an easy fix as they will attempt to fly out of a closed window so mere opening said portal will release them unharmed. The occasional dead mouse or mole is an offering, I know, toward her room and board payment. I only ask that she leave it somewhere less conspicuous than the bathmat.
Summer brings the outside inside in the form of warm breezes, scents and sounds. If I can figure out how to control the rest, it will be a great season!
Therapeutic Misadventures 
Big fan of the water bag by the door, works like a charm… never used the pennies though…hmmm… I love an upgrade!
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I have no idea where this came from but it does work! My kids laugh at me. Thanks Doppleganger!!
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Hay, if it works in horse barns keeping flies away, what more do we need to know?
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Hanni and Lex just laugh when they see the bags but they agree, for some strange reason it works!
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I want Alice’s life!
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Don’t we all, Susan??
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I’ve never heard of the bag of water and pennies. I’ll have to try it-I’m having hornet troubles.
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Hmm, not sure what to do for hornets. They are so antisocial.
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Still haven’t solved the inside/outside toy thing I see…not to worry winter is coming soon enough.
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Ugh! How dare you utter that word?? Yes Laura, winter will solve the problem but the price of losing our outdoor spaces is very high.
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I’ve seen bags of water used to repel flies, but not with pennies in them. One theory is that the bags of water are shiny and reflective, so the fly’s compound eye see it as a bigger insect than him lurking there, so he stays away. I imagine that shiny pennies would add to the reflection from within the bag so it makes perfect sense to me.
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That makes sense, Susan. I wonder who thought of this first?
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Love this: and I get to decide who is who. 🙂
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Weak protests against the two of them are getting me no where!! Thanks Julie!!
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It is 1st June, we just had to put the heating back on, it is grey and cold and has poured with torrential rain….thank goodness for sunny writing!! Just caught up with this and flip flops and chuckling about squirrel nutkin again…
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We are now in the chilly, rainy days for a while. Missing the warm but we desperately need the rain…
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I tnink on the other hand that we have enough, our water tanks are all full to bursting and one has a large plant growing out of it which I must encourage somebody to compost…
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The ‘best’ gift I got from my cat Tigger was a frog. It was alive and he dropped it on the carpet which just happened to be perfect frog camouflage. Until it moved we couldn’t see it and then, of course it was somewhere else and still again. It took two hours, moving out all the furniture and locking Tigger outside before we finally cornered it, captured it and released it into the wild.
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Not sure which I prefer, Marie, the live gifts or the dead ones! Both gross me out totally.
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