"jameson" wrote in message
om...
Hi all, my wife and I have lived in an apartment since we have been
married. We bought a nice home 3 months ago and love it. I never
thought I would enjoy yard work but I just cant get enough of it... We
live out of the city and have a pretty large backyard.

It is now summertime and we are coming to notice lots and lots of
BUGS!
When we lived in the city, they sprayed almost nightly for
mosquitos... this helps them not be so bothersome to us but now they
seem to be a noticable pest...among other bugs...
Here are a few issues I would hope that some yard/garden experts could
help me out with:

Mosquito Hawks (those big looking mosquitos)... I am not sure if this
is thier actual name, but from what I understand, they eat mosquitos
and are not interested in my blood... my exterminator guy tells me he
can spray my bushes to kill most of the M. hawks... but will killing
them INCREASE my regular mosquito populations?

Red ants... I hear that they come with rain and I have found it to be
true... in alabama ants are EVERYWHERE for some reason, so when we got
into our home I bought some Amdro and within a week all of our ant
hills were barren waste lands. And they were all black ants... never
saw a red one. then a few weeks ago we had some rain and (pop pop pop)
up come red ant hills... and I have noticed they are TOTALLY different
from black ants... the black ants will seem to travel 10 to 20 yards
to get the AMDRO.... yet the red ants look to be picking up the AMDRO,
walking AWAY from thier mound, dropping it and going back to the
mound... and the package actuially SPECIFIES that it is for red
ants... are these ants just super smart? Unfortunately it has raind
for 3 days straight since my last application so I am afraid they are
going to explode all over my yard once it dries up... so I guess my
question here is... how does one get rid of red and black ants
successfully? is it an ongoing battle?

June Bugs (i think)... at night while my wife and I watch tv, we here
a gentle "knock...knock...knock" on our back door... turns out, these
fat bugs are hitting the doors and windows and dying on the spot... I
guess they like the light, but aside from putting out those ugly
trtaps in my yard, is there any other deterant? They arent bothersome,
just gross having to sweep thier dead bodies off my porch every day.

I hope my questions arent dumb sounding... I am really looking forward
to many enjoyable years in my home, but just hate the thought of
playing some backyard football and diving for a catch only to land
face first in an ant-bed, get bit by mosquitos while running into the
house for ointment, and end up slipping on dead june bug bodies and
hitting my head... lol
Thansk in advace all!
Jazz Mann

First of all, congratulations on buying your first home Now to answer
your questions

The mosquito hawks do eat lots of skeeters, so don't kill them...they are
essential (at least they are to me).

These "red ant's"..are they fire ants? More than likely they are, and those
critters are a pain in the butt!! If you see them carrying the AMDRO
granules, that's a good thing They will carry it to their queen...it will
kill her, then within days, the whole colony will die. It may take a little
longer if it's a huge mound. I remember a time (when I was a kid) that
nobody had even heard of fire ants. Those were the days, LOL!

The June bugs are something you pretty much just have to learn to live in
harmony with They do tend to hang around light though, so if you keep the
porch light off and maybe put a curtain on the window so they can't see the
light inside at night, that might discourage them a little.

Hope my answers help you out some Good Luck!
Angie