Educate your neighborhood civic association
Many homeowners believe they cannot use more native plants
in their landscape because of rules developed and enforced
by their township, civic association, informal neighborhood
group, or homeowner association. These rules were established
back when we wallowed in misconceptions like:
1) humans can exist independent of the natural world,
2) there is plenty of nature out there,
3) plants are just decorations, and
4) nature is nice but optional.
Thankfully we are finally recognizing that none of those
notions are correct, so it is time to update the antiquated,
destructive landscape regulations that were based on
them. Join your HOA, educate the uninformed, lobby your
township to increase the number of productive plants in
public spaces, and help rewrite the rules. Change will come
more quickly if we recognize that these are not black and
white issues and there is room for compromise. NK
more, most of the fertilizers you use are washed into our
waterways where they cause deadly algal blooms before they
are taken up by plants.
Oppose mindless mosquito spraying by your township or
HOA. Contrary to what the fogger operator may have told
you, the pyrethroid-based insecticides used by mosquito
foggers indiscriminately kill all insects, not just mosquitos.
Ironically, targeting adult mosquitos is the worst and by far
the most expensive approach to mosquito control. Mosquitos
are best controlled in the larval stage. Put a 5-gallon bucket of
water in a sunny place in your yard and add a handful of hay
or straw. After a few days, the resulting brew is irresistible to
gravid (full of eggs) female mosquitos. After the mosquitos
have laid their eggs, add a commercially available mosquito
dunk tablet that contains Bacillus thuringiensis, a natural
larvicide, to your bucket. The eggs will hatch, and the larvae
will die. This way you control your mosquitos, and only your
mosquitos, without the use of harmful insecticides.
WINTER/SPRING 2019 • VOLUME 41
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