QUIT BUGGING ME, PART 4

In the continuing saga of "The Flaming Bore versus The Cicada Killers," round one went to those pesky insects digging the sand out from underneath my patio pavers. In response to all the insecticide Big Bore shot into their holes, they just dug out a NEW doorway to their palace--right in between the pavers this time!

Now, some readers may wonder why I am being so hysterical about these visitors moving underneath the patio. It's because when I retired five years ago I dug up the entire backyard, by myself, hauled three tons of sand from the driveway into the backyard, by myself, to make the 130 sqaure-foot patio by myself. Did I mention that I did this all by myself? With the help of a plastic level tool? To have these buggy bugs remove so much sand from underneath the south row of pavers that they have now sunk and separated from the next row is really ticking me off!

Big Bore has given all the holes another shot of liquid Sevin, and since this latest hole is away from the barberry bushes I've decided to give it an extra dose of another killing agent---maybe ammonia or some of my cooking, whichever is the most lethal. It's still early in the day, so I'll have to give it a little more thought.

In the meantime, I'm trying to decide what to do with the 25-year-old blue spruce that has bitten the dust due to a heat-related fungus. We've tossed around the idea of turning it into another bottle tree, but I'm also thinking about sticking a cat weather vane on top, if such things are made, and then just nailing in "stuff" on the trunk to make it a work of art, also known as a junk tree. Time will tell, and Big Bore says time will also eventually get the Cicada Killers. Apparently they typically start dying off on their own in September. I can't wait to dig up and re-set that south row of pavers to give them their last rites.