Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts

21 June 2009

How To Get Rid Of Pests

House fly illustration. The original caption r...Image via Wikipedia

By Michael Naseem

After your family has wolfed down that delicious pizza, or pigged out on the roast you had prepared for them, it was your job to wipe off the table especially if there were any crumbs that were left behind. You also have a regular routine of dusting all of the surfaces around your house. Now comes the time when you have to sweep the floor. This may seem to you that the housecleaning chores have been put upon your shoulders. Haven't you hear it said that many hands make light work? If you have children in your household, give them each some cleaning tasks that must be performed each week. Yet, if you want to keep rats, cockroaches and other vermin from taking up residence in your house you are going to need more than simply a mop, towel and a feather duster. How and why are you going to get the upper hand on your pest situation? Read on!

What You Can't See Won't Hurt You?

The food has been stored away in the refrigerator and the trash has been taken out. What does it matter if there are a few roaches creeping along the walls, or what does it hurt if there are one or two mice playing in the space behind your wall? Did you know that salmonella, typhus and meningitis are just a few of the diseases that are carried around by rats? Vomiting, gastrointestinal complications and hospitalization can all come from the bacteria that are not only found on the feet of the common cockroach, but they are found in this insect's stomach which it uses for digestion.

Roaches carry the worst allergens that will trigger an asthma attack. Behind this bug's wings there may be dysentery, leprosy, the polio virus, tuberculosis and cholera. The housefly is another bug that is most annoying. Doctors think that the yaws, anthrax, Chlamydia, diarrhea and parasitic worms that the ordinary fly can bring are worse.

Holistic Pest Prevention

If you want to rid your household of all of these pests, you can set up a pest prevention system using poisons, traps and getting rid of any nesting sites that you may know about. When you choose the right poison, you want to make sure that you take the rest of the house into consideration. Make sure that you inform all of those who live in your house about the poisoned baits that you have set around the house. If you have small children, you had better make sure that they cannot have access to these baits. It will be a big mistake to leave any of this poison on the floor where a crawling baby can get his or her hands on it. If you have a pet, make sure they cannot see it and mistake it for their food. Make sure you put the poison into the crevices which are not accessible to small children and pets but which are the most likely places for these vermin to hang out.

Insect sprays are effective against roaches, flies, and mosquitoes, but only if you purchase products that constantly upgrade their formulation. If a cockroach survives ingesting a certain formula, all of its offspring will be resistant to the said poison. Make sure you buy from a manufacturer that understands the uncanny mutational capabilities of insects.

Never Too Careful

The simplest way to understand the saying that cleanliness is next to Godliness is when you go to check out what creatures are taking up space in your home out of the filth that you do not clean. Yes, you must keep taking out the trash, but make sure that the top of the trash can is tightly sealed. Check for unlikely cracks, holes and crevices which are all rats need in order to make a home. If you want to make sure that mosquitoes are not hanging around, remove all stagnant water. If you want to use traps effectively, then place them around the grounds that pests use for breeding and in places where pest food is available such as trash cans. You can never be too careful when it comes to health and pest control.

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13 May 2009

All Cooped Up! How To Build A Chicken Coop

A movable chicken coop with an A-frame design ...Image via Wikipedia

by Sandra Stammberger

Chickens are fun to watch and they can provide you eggs and meat. Often times people buy chickens and let them live outside and to find whatever shelter they can provide for themselves. There are two problems with raising chickens in that manner, the first are the many predators that are hunting your chickens, there are numerous stray dogs that will wipe out a flock of chickens not to mention skunks and other animals. The second problem is that they do not lay eggs well when they are raised that way and when they do lay eggs it is difficult to find them. In this article I am going to give you two different ideas about how to make a chicken coop.

Free Organic Eggs! Building a coop is far easier than many people believe. Chickens are low maintenance pets. Building a chicken Coop Supports Sustainable Living. The chickens provide hours and hours of entertainment. Chickens get along with other pets. Chickens do not smell. Your eggs will not be weeks old before you even buy them at the grocery store. You can get the freshest eggs. You prevent your chicken from dying of a disease in a small cage. You do not have to have a big backyard to enjoy chickens and their eggs. Chickens are loyal pets. Eggs may prevent breast cancer. In one study, women who consumed at least 6 eggs per week lowered their of breast cancer by 44%. Chickens are very clean animals. IT IS FUN!

Often times when we ask how to make a chicken coop or anything else for that matter we try to rack our heads to come up with ideas for the perfect plan. If you are good at this type of planning thats great or if you are just a weekend project type of person then you might like my second idea. Rather than pull your hair out coming up with elaborate plans for making your chicken coop, you can go to your local hardware store and buy a set of plans for a small or large wood shed for about $5.00 and even less. The size of the shed depends on how many chickens that you have. It is important to remember that you will have to build a roost and laying boxes if you decide too go this rout. A roost can simply be made out of two 2x4x8s and three or four 2x2x8s. Nail your 2x4s about 7 feet apart at about a 45 degree angle, space the 2x2s crossways and now you have a roost. Your egg boxes can be made our of ply wood and 2x2s, make sure to put dividers in them due to the fact that chickens like a certain amount of privacy when they lay eggs.

No matter which idea you pick make sure that you build a chicken yard off of the coop. it is also a good idea to put chicken wire over the top of the chicken yard or run due to flying predators like hawks and crows.

Once you have your foundations set up, put the flooring in, again, about four feet from the ground. You can corner nail the flooring in if you wish, but it is a better idea to place small 2x4 braces under the flooring where they will connect to the foundations. This will give a little extra support and a good spot to put your nails in.

On a final note, be sure and put a decent amount of hay inside each doorway so that the chickens can use it for nesting. Enjoy your farm fresh eggs, fresh chicken meat, and the cash you make from selling those eggs!

Now, simply measure between the walls and floor for height and from foundation to foundation for the back and side walls. Use good thick plywood for this, at least inch. Do the exact same for the front wall, but cut out several doorways from the plywood so that the chickens can enter and exit. With that, the coop itself is almost finished. Now all you need to do is take some 1x5 boards and run them into the doorways angled to the ground so your chickens can enter and exit easily. A quick wire mesh fence around it all later and you have your completed chicken coop. At the very most, you might have $40.00 invested. Many people even use second-hand lumber to save even more cash.

Be aure to put hay inside the doorways. This is to make sure that your chicken can use it for nesting. And in some days it is time to enjoy your fresh farm eggs... you can even sell your eggs and make some additional money!

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