In article , Katra wrote:
In article .net,
Speaking of lizards, couple days ago I saw a type I'd not seen before
(SoCal desert) -- it was blue, looked like an iguana (big thick head
and body, not a skinny "snake with legs" like most of our little
desert lizards) and kinda spiny all over.
Probably a western fence lizard???

goes googling Nope, tho that looks like the little "snake with legs"
type we have tons of. This one was distinctly BLUE and I've never seen
one like it before. It had the bulky head of an iguana, and a thick
body to match, but had little lumpy spines kindof all over rather than
just one down the back like an iguana does. Very quick and agile, went
up the cinder block wall in a flash.

Pyrethrins work just as well, break down very fast, and are harmless
to warmblooded creatures even if ingested. And try insecticidal soap
(essentially a mix of dish soap to choke bugs, and canola oil to make
it stick to stuff). Hornworms curl up and die right before your eyes.
Only had to spray the tomatos 2x last year, and they responded to the
soap by growing into 12 foot long vines with LOTS of fruit.
Hmmmmm... I did used to use Pyrethrin in the henyard for flies but now
that I have my duck flock back, I no longer have a fly control problem.

Whereas here flies pretty much starve unless you provide something
that likes to make a mess in water, like ducks. g

;-) Never tried them much on the food plants. I worry about killing my
spiders tho'. :-(

Here the main spiders are black widow (both the passive and the leggy
aggressive types) and brown recluse. Our big worry is whether we can
get them all killed off before they take over, or eat us alive. My
tenant got bit by one in her bed yesterday. One reason I keep atropine
on hand is for spider bites. And if you're gone for 3 days, when you
come back the house will be chock full of black widow webs, to the
point that it looks like a movie spook house (no kidding). Hanging
dichlorvos no-pest strips helps esp. with the black widows. Doesn't
seem to bother the wolf spiders, either, tho we don't see many of
those anyway.

I've noticed a few golden garden spiders among the roses lately, but
they're not typically a desert spider. Probably only surviving here
because my place is sortof a little oasis

I try to hand pick them, but the little *******s are hard to spot!!!
Try listening for them. When they're disturbed, they make this odd
mechanical noise. Then you can hone in on the sound and get 'em.
And they do oh so much damage oh so quickly. :-(
Not much less than a maniac with an axe
snicker Sounds like a story there?

Well, I once did chop up a misbehaving typewriter ... tho after
fighting with it for several years (couldn't get parts, had to repair
it myself, which was always an adventure).

Can anyone tell me how to control rats without poisoning?
Traps dont' work. Rats are too smart.

Where I lived before, we got invaded by roof rats, which are so
prolific that traps and poison are a waste of effort. But every
morning I'd find 5 or 6 drowned in the dogs' water buckets, and
several more killed by one of my dogs (I breed Labradors). If there's
no other open water, you can lure 'em into big buckets or small
garbage cans with a foot or so of water in the bottom, deep enough
that they fall in when they try to drink, and enough water down there
that they can't get out so they eventually drown. (And no, I have
absolutely no sympathy for suffering rodents.

Or get a Jack Russell terrier and don't feed it, so it has to hunt.
They're good rat dogs and have no qualms about eating rats.

~REZ~