All-Natural Products / Honey of a Bee / Rollerland West

Ian found a new friend at the Zoo.

Play is the exultation
of the possible.

                             – Martin Buber

Keeping harmful chemicals in your home puts both children and pets at risk (as well as adults), especially if they accidentally get into them when you’re not looking. That’s why it’s best to use all-natural products that pose absolutely NO risk, except to your target.

Below are ways to effectively deter ants naturally, provided by Mother Nature Network.

Lemon Juice – Spraying pure lemon juice in or around openings near your home can prevent the pests from entering.

Kylee found several new friends.

Cinnamon – Ground, oil or combined with ground cloves, both fill your home with warm, seasonal scents and deter ants if sprinkled in their paths.

Peppermint – either by itself, or combined with equal parts water can be mixed and sprayed directly at the ants or along their pathways.

Coffee grounds – place used coffee grounds in the cracks near their entryway. The coffee deters the ants, forcing them to set up shop somewhere else.

Mary Alice celebrated a birthday. Congratulations.

Chalk – Drawing a line around windows or doorway entries has kept ants at bay for some. You can usually find chalk at home improvement stores, some of which come in a squeeze bottle, making application easy.

Baking soda and powdered sugar – Mixing baking soda and powdered sugar in jar lids and placing them in strategic corners can greatly reduce ant populations.

Hot water and dish soap – Filling a spray bottle with soap and hot water can work very effectively against ants. Also, food items that attract ants, such as honey jars, can be placed on a small water-filled saucer to prevent the insects from reaching it.

Rylee, Kylee and Kayla loved feeding the birds.

Vinegar plus equal parts water isn’t just great for cleaning your kitchen counter tops and floors but has been known to sufficiently kill unwanted insects. Pouring the solution where the ants have their nest is key. You can also mix vinegar with peppermint for an extra kick that gets rid of them faster.

Cream of wheat – Posts on Helpful Gardener say cream of wheat takes care of ant infestations. After eating the cream of wheat, rolled oats, dry cornmeal or grits, it swells up in their guts and their stomachs explode.

We love the Fort Worth Zoo.

There are so many effective ways to control ants, or other insects, without using toxic chemicals. Next week, I may focus on helping to control the Uncles! And later, the pesky cousins.

Sources:
http://www.mnn.com
http://www.spraguepest.com
http://www.helpfulgardener.com
http://lifehacker.com
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com

Also from Natural News: For decades, top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (PEA) were aware that a compound approved for agricultural use in the United States was wiping out the honeybee population, but they chose to ignore the compound’s effects in deference to pressure from agri-giant corporations.

Is that Dr. A setting a good example for lunch? And, what’s with the fur coat?

Worse, the agency reacted harshly to anyone within the EPA who attempted to bring the issue to light, including through firings, forced reassignments and other actions.According to a scholarly 2014 study [PDF] compiled by researcher Rosemary Mason, “on behalf of a global network of independent scientists, beekeepers and environmentalists,” and published on the website of MIT, “We have found evidence to show that the herbicide glyphosate (or alternatives) the primary substance found in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide – became a global best-selling herbicide because the public was told by industry and the regulators that it was ‘safe.’ “

Travis showed us his two handed method.

The results have been disastrous. The heavy use of glyphosate has led to the rise of so-called “superweeds” that are resistant to the herbicide. And there is another compound that was approved by the EPA — over the objections of scientists — that has had a devastating effect on the nation’s honeybee population: clothianidin, which is used for seed treatment on corn and canola, by Bayer.

Alden showed us the finer points of befriending the feathered ones.

        ‘Honeybees are going extinct’

According to this EPA document describing clothianidin [PDF], it “is highly toxic to honey bees on an acute contact basis,” and “has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other non-target pollinators, through residues in nectar and pollen. “In honey bees, the effects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects in the queen,”. Her research team found additional evidence of corporate/EPA cover-up regarding the effects of clothianidin.

This 99-page EPA memorandum dated November 2, 2010, [PDF] noted, in part:The major risk concerns are with aquatic free-swimming and benthic invertebrates, terrestrial invertebrates, birds and mammals.Clothianidin is an insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis.

Tests and field studies, as well as incident reports suggest the potential for long term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

A number of EPA scientists – those with integrity, anyway – have tried along the way to sound the alarm – over both glyphosate and clothianidin.

In a piece for The Huffington Post, former EPA scientist Evaggelos Vallianatos wrote that honeybees were on the verge of extinction.Here is a beneficial insect pollinating a third of America’s crops, especially fruits and vegetables, and we thank the fragile and highly beneficial honeybees with stupefying killing.

A good time was had by all at the beautiful Fort Worth Zoo. Please take your family for a relaxing, wonderful time.

Poisoning of honeybees became routine in the mid-1970s with the EPA’s approval of neurotoxins encapsulated in dust-size particles that took days to release their deadly gas. He further noted that some of his colleagues have tried to denounce the EPA actions, but the agency reacted “with fury” after one EPA ecologists discovered neurotoxic plastic spheres in the gut of a queen honeybee, which “meant poison in the honey. “It forced the scientist out of his laboratory and into paper pushing in Washington. Approval of the industry’s neurotoxins expanded to cover most major crops. This meant honeybees had less and less space to search for food without dying,” Villianatos wrote. Read the entire Mason report here [PDF].

Sources: http://people.csail.mit.edu [PDF]
http://www.epa.gov [PDF]
http://beyondpesticides.org [PDF]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com

Note: LeVonna and I maintain a honeybee hive behind our home. Honeybees have thrived on our property for decades. We have lived in harmony and have treasured their presence. The wildflowers we keep during the Spring and Summer, in front of the school, are beautiful to see.

But more importantly, they are grown without the use of pesticides and benefit our precious, life sustaining honey bees and many other beautiful creations, such as spectacular moths, mosquito eating and unbelievably beautiful Dragonflies, our precious friends the Praying Mantises, our bountiful and beautiful life saving birds and many others.

FRIDAY TRIP TO ROLLER SKATE

We will meet on Friday, Oct. 3, at 10:00 a.m. at ROLLERLAND WEST, located at 7325 Calmont Avenue –Telephone: 817-244-8290. The group rate is $10.00 per person. Please pay Dr. A.

At approximately 11:30 a.m. will we will travel to McKinley’s Fine Bakery & Café, 1616 South University Drive, (817) 332-3242 to enjoy lunch.

Ask us if we had a good time!

Following lunch we will travel to the Texas Christian University Bookstore, 2950 West Berry Street, Fort Worth, (817) 257-7844. The TCU Bookstore is located on the corner of University Street and West Berry Street. The parking lot entrance is accessible from Cockrell Ave.

Pickup will be at 2:30 p.m. at the bookstore.

                    Emergency Telephone 682-777-1908

If you arrive late, we shall have departed with your child(ren) and will return to school. Please call and let us know if you will be late. Keep ringing, Dr. A is snoozing – dreaming of times gone by when he could rollerskate, speak coherently, remember your name, add, subtract, etc.!

Dr. A taught them everything they needed to know.

Students are NOT to leave Rollerland, the restaurant or bookstore
without the approval of Dr. or Mrs. Anderson.

FINANCIAL: Rollerskating $10.00 (Please pay Dr. A.) and lunch. Refreshments available: Yes! You may wish to purchase a book.

Uniform pants with a belt & red monogrammed school shirts are required.

PARENTS / FRIENDS / NEIGHBORS, are always invited to participate on our trips.

Gift Shop: Yes.
Lunch: Yes (please provide funds)

At approximately 11:30 a.m. will we will travel to McKinley’s Fine

A proud moment.

Bakery & Café, 1616 South University Drive, (817) 332-3242 to enjoy lunch. Following lunch we will travel to the Texas Christian University Bookstore, 2950 West Berry Street, Fort Worth, (817) 257-7844. The TCU Bookstore is located on the corner of University Street and West Berry Street. The parking lot entrance is accessible from Cockrell Ave.

Mary Alice gets around slowly.

Pickup will be at 2:30 p.m. at the bookstore.

IMPORTANT DATES

Oct 13 (Monday) Columbus Day Holiday
Oct. 17 Modern Art Museum
Oct. 24 Fossilmania sale show – in Glen Rose
Oct. 31 Ripley’s Believe It or Not / Palace of Wax
Nov. 7 DFW New Auto Show in Fort Worth
Nov. 24-28 (Monday – Friday) Thanksgiving / Fall Break
Dec. 3-5 (Wed.-Fri.) Texas A.G.T. Conference (NO school)
Dec. 19 Last Day of Fall Semester