Commentary

Pesticide use will continue to lessen as gardeners and planters are mindful of the great benefits of natural pest control and stay away from traditional pesticide use. If you’re trying to get total elimination of your pest control problems, you never will. Chemical pesticides may dissolve the problem temporarily, however if a formerly sprayed pest returns to your neck of the woods, they may be more resistant to chemical pesticides in the future.

It’s also to keep in mind that electric bug zappers also work in the same way of the pesticides albeit different in the fact that you are not spraying, but are still eliminating a very rich resource for local birds and bats to munch on. One thing that people fail to realize is how the bug zapper works and how they fail to attract the intended targets – mosquitoes! Here’s why. Electronic bug zappers work by attracting insects that are looking for a mate at night and are attracted to light.

A mosquito on the other hand, find their nightly meal of blood from mammals by smelling the carbon monoxide that all mammals exhale. They are not attracted to light and therefore miss being killed by these bug zapping devices.

Ken “The Batman” Rudman is resident of Wyoming. He is also a writer, businessman and a promoter of bird and bat preservation, natural insect control, and a “how-to” guy to help people build up their backyard network in attracting song birds, feeders, artificial houses, facts and more. Send your questions, ideas, article requests and inquiries to Ken – The Backyard Ombudsman-  at his email address: mailto:wildlifehouses@yahoo.com