The aphids attacking my cotton, my very soft-leaved cotton, were only injured by our last wave of ladybugs. Yesterday, I released another wave, but between the ants and the ladybugs ability to fly away, I'm not optimistic about the results. This isn't like dealing with aphids on small vegetables where the ladybugs can wipe them out in an hour and then fly off, these are nine, 6' tall plants in a raised bed. The ladybugs will need days to obliterate the enemy.
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| Gaze upon the faces of evil. |
So now we escalate the war.
I just installed some ant bait stakes in the bed. It's a liquid bait infused with borax which is deadly to ants, but won't be absorbed into my cayenne peppers. I'm hoping that in a few days, the aphids' protective escorts will be significantly reduced. We'll see about that.
Update: The ants have discovered two of the three baits. They are industriously mining them for the sweet, sweet toxins inside. I love it when a plan comes together.
Second, I'm planning on constructing a temporary ladybug aviary. It will consist of a simple frame with shade cloth draped over it. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to keep most of the ladybugs from escaping while they devour the aphids.
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| Kind of like this. |
Escalation In Our Cities
Dig this video from the 'burbs of Seattle and ask yourself how long it would take you to put your house on the market if this happened to you.
As New York City is discovering, productive people can leave. Ones who work in the information industry probably don't have to come back.
The question no one is asking is, "Who is left once the productive people leave?"
Detroit can answer that question.
Some commentators say that this unrest will lead to changes in city governance and the election of reality-based leaders. Why? Many of the people who would have voted for that will be gone. The leaders will cater to the electorate. If the electorate becomes more and more dominated by the social justice crowd, why would you expect these cities to discover common sense and bounce back?
2 comments:
"Some commentators say that this unrest will lead to changes in city governance and the election of reality-based leaders. Why? Many of the people who would have voted for that will be gone."
Same with California as a state.
Last month I got laid off from the company I'd been with for 25 years. I pretty much saw it coming since the last merger. So I was looking.
A place I had started talking to in March, had stopped hiring and started back up. I was hired 5 days after my last day at the old company. So things worked out well for me.
The new company is at "the other end of the world" of the Twin Cities. I wouldn't have considered this job even a couple years ago, because it is just too far away. But I am considering moving. Since everything is remote, and so no commute, I'm not thinking of it now. But once I am commuting from the east side of St Paul to the far south west part of Minneapolis, we'll see what happens. I got to think my house could be worth more for people fleeing the city but not wanting to be too far out. We are less that 15 miles from downtown St Paul.
There are a lot of houses going up for sale in Minneapolis now. Sounds like they are selling to the type that are going to double down on what is destroying the city.
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