STs Friday, September 27. 1991 ~ North Shore News - 45 SEE SRA OF IERY 1 SE RPE SE CSB aa 2 P OAR A AE OO Or wl, SCC Saat Te RRO TS ERA Da PAE PT See a CE a Eat The leatherjacket is no welcome gift I WAS sure someone promised re an Indian Summer. It was just near the end of August. You know, those glorious days just before the sky opened up and introduced us to the wet wrath of God. “‘The Farmer’s Almanac is promising us an Indian Summer,”’ they said. ‘‘Hot, balmy weather until the end of October,’’ they said. ‘Supposed to be a real re- cord breaker,’’ they said. I’m sure the weather was better when [| was The Kid. | can remember staring out my classroom windows, looking up at Seymour and Grouse for the first signs of snow in late October. ! am trying not to be pessimistic, but the last year has really started getting me down. Fall used to be warm days, bright autumn colors and pulling the legs off of the flying daddy-long-legs. All that seems to be left are those stupid, flying behemoths. And every garden centre is stocking up on litres of Diazinon and spreading stories of the death and destruction — trying to per- suade us that those funny little flying fiends are soon aboui to eat us out of turf and garden. Flying daddy-long-legs, Euro- pean Crane Fly, Leatherjacket, tipula paludosa, call it what you will; it is not a sufficient threat to cause us to drown the neighborhood in pesticides. Let’s get a clearer picture of what ail the fuss is about. It is during the dying days of summer and early fall that we see the innocent-looking adults: long- legged, clumsy and _ seemingly harmless. In actual fact, they are — only the larvae cause damage. We see crane flies dancing across our lawns late in the evening and even occasionally blundering in- doors to be caught and tortured by young children. Try to refrain from offering your sympathies too quickly. Their offsprings are the nasty- looking, brown-grey, one to one and a half inch, worm-like mag- gots we occasionally have the misfortune of finding near the surface in our lawns and gardens. Ugh! These vile-looking creatures hatch over ‘the fall and winter from eggs which those harmless looking adults are laying now. They will idle away the hours of winter feeding on the fine, hair roots of your lawn and young, tender garden flowers and vegetables in the spring. The resulting damage in the case of lawns can be seen as ir- regular patches of dead, brown grass while spring’s damaged seed- lings will topple and expire com- pletely. And this is minor when compared to the damage done by raccoons which will tear the lawn and garden to pieces looking for a succulent meal of juicy larvae. Double ugh! If I had a nickel (might as well QUR PRODUCTS COME FROM OAK TREES™ OUR. QUALITY GROWS ON -OUR-CUSTOMERS- "BEDROOM * BOOKCASES - * OFFICE FURN. * CHOICE Geoff Tobiasson Ud OVER THE GARDEN GATE make that a buck) for every ume I was asked to solve a racccon problem, I could afford to find my own Indian Summer. Nine times out of 10, it is the result of some ‘‘poor old soul?’ purchasing leatherjacket-infested turf from some disreputable sod farm. Every day the poor old soul Tolls out his turf only to have it rolled up again every night by hungry raccoons. He tries staking it down, throwing netting over it, 4é Flying daddy-long-legs, European Crane Fly, Leatherjacket, tipula paludosa, call it what you will; it is not a sufficient threat to cause us to drown the neighborhood in pesticides. 99 buying 'coon dogs, and even stay- ing out all night with a gun. As usual, there are methods: a) Avoid buying pest-ridden turf. b) Stop ringing the dinner bell and get rid of the leatherjackets. As ! hope most of you have come to realize, I am not a big fan of the chemical solution. So what to do about the bugs? Well, ducks are nice. As are crows, chickens and other insect- easier eating fowl. You inight have a problem with your local bylaw en- forcement officer, but you will get rid of your leatherjackets, and slugs, and probably your lawn and garden too. So what to do with the bugs? Well, here’s the bad part fetks, you don’t. Here are your choices: you can ignore the problem and learn to live with the bugs or go for the Diazinon and die with the rest of the planet. PAVINGSTONE FOR DRIVEWAYS AND PATIOS B HOLLAND s UNIVERSAL A VARIETY OF CHOICES IN GARDEN RETAINING WALLS s 4 Rott ({ '@ SANDBOX SAND © FILL SAND | © CRUSHED & ROUND STONE © RIVERSTONE ©. TOP SOIL. * BARK MULCH © LAVA ROCK ¢ LIVING ROOM * WALL UNITS = * DESKS OF STAINS ; @ DINING ROOM «TV. CENTRES =» FILE CABINETS ¢ COFFEE ¢ STEREO UNITS * CHAIRS TABLES * CUSTOM BUILDING ALSO AVAILABLE * WAREHOUSE DIRECT SAVINGS VING THE NORTH SHORE SINCE 1959