Many of us are gardening and planting flowers in our yards, making everything look beautiful and inviting. Using pesticides to keep your yard pest free with isn’t the only option out there.
The Nepenthes preys on spiders, ants, scorpions and insects.
Many plants, predatory insects, local mammals, and birds can help with great force and no residual back-lash to the environment. I recently visited a few places that focus on natural remedies to controlling the mosquito and bug population.
Attract More Birds and Bats
My first stop is a wonderful store that focuses on wild and domestic birds called Wild Birds Unlimited (71 Brookwood Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-576-0861, www.wbu.com). This amazing place has everything you will need to start your own special place to feed and watch birds in your yard, as they carry on with their lives.
The store carries some of the easiest hummingbird feeders to clean and maintain, and they also carry locally made hummingbird and birdfeeders made from local items like wine bottles from local vintners. You can always find a friendly smiling face that can answer any questions about our local birds and what feed that is best for your local bird no matter where you are from.
Bat boxes are another amazing item they carry. These amazing creatures are wonderful at controlling your local bug population, like mosquitos and moths, plus bat droppings are great for the soil.
Wild Birds has a great selection of bird baths, bird houses or condos, books, bird seed and accessories needed to hang or place your feeders safely away from predators like cats or raccoons.
Bug-eating Plants
California Carnivores (2833 Old Gravenstein Highway, Sebastopol, 707-824-0433, californiacarnivores.com) is place that everyone from your family would love to explore and gain knowledge about plant life in a whole new way.
Carnivorous plants sold here specialize in capturing their nutritional needs by gathering insects in traps, sticky fluids, or by grasping their prey in teeth-like leafs, like the Venus fly trap. Bring your own bugs if you wish to feed them.
California Carnivores offer a self-guided tour for you to view the hundreds of varieties of plants that are on sale or for display. The largest carnivorous plant nursery in the world is open 10 a.m-4 p.m. Thursday through Monday. They also ship all of their plants and gifts to you.
Tips from a Home Gardener
When my garden in Santa Rosa is in need of a little pest control, I release lady bugs and praying mantis to help control any bug issue I may have. Lady bugs love to eat aphids and their eggs, which sometimes find their way to my rose bushes, as well as my fruit and vegetable garden.
The praying mantis eats everything that it can catch in its front graspers that comes in contact with your garden. These little warriors of the garden have never let me down. They keep my yard and garden pest free naturally. This keeps my growing food, the animals that live or travel to my yard, my neighbors, and myself healthier. It eliminates chemicals that may be harmful to the environment and others. It also keeps the helpful insects like butterflies or bees, which pollinate our gardens and flowers, alive and healthy.
Have a great day and I hope to see you out there enjoying Sonoma County.
Miguel A. Lujan Jr., CMT/NMT, is the owner of Samagse Massage, a mobile massage and spa service: Professional integrative massage and spa services with the convenience of being in your home, office, hotel room, or event. Call 707-293-6785 or visit www.samagse.com for more information. Hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. every day. Appointments after 9 p.m. and holidays have an additional cost.
