Nature Army

Getting Rid Of Stink Bugs Without Poisoning The World

Time: 5 minutes to several months
Skills: Uhhh...
Stink bugs. Everyone knows 'em, everyone hates 'em, except maybe frogs, birds, and spiders. You might grudgingly accept them in your light bulbs or blinds, but I think I speak for many when I say that the tomatoes and peppers are the last straw. They don't even eat the whole thing; just make sure I can't eat it. While most gardeners tend to whip out the insecticide and drench their plants before they can multiply, you might guess that the Nature Army has their own way of doing things. The first? Companion planting.

 (The victims.)

Chives, lavender, and marigolds have some kind of chemical that stinkbugs find less than favorable. For the small space gardener, I'd recommend marigolds. You can fit one to four plants in a square foot, but don't do that. Spread them out all over your yard. Put them everywhere: the base of the tree, by the cat door, next to the birdhouse you painted, in the garden, and locking the peppers and tomatoes on all sides. If you feel like it. Lavender and chives are a good addition to the herb garden. I would say the same about chives that I did about marigolds, but if you did that you would have more chives than anyone could possibly eat. (Then again, the flowers aren't half bad.)

Plant dark purple petunias next to your marigolds. It's a bit of a cliché at this point, but they're
pretty and they smell amazing. 

If you have no more room left to plant marigolds or chives (lavender gets much bigger), then we've got another trick just for you. (Don't take that personally.) Here's my secret recipe.

Using your environmentally-friendly dish soap, splash a, well, splash into a bowl of water. Soak a stinkbug, Japanese beetle, or other invasive pest into mixture. Repeat.

Tip: Do not watch the insect writhe and squirm as the poisons overtake his/her body. You will not be happy. Also, do not dump the stink bug cup into the yard or in your siblings' shoes. The trash can or woods are a much better place. At least, people don't run around in the trash can with bare feet. I hope.

You can also make stink bug traps out of 2-liter soda bottles. I'm not sure how to do it, but apparently it works.

Stink bugs came from Asia. A ship coming over to America for trade unwittingly had some aboard the ship, and you know the rest. So obviously, the American climate wasn't too harsh on them.

If you want to do this for a Nature Army Initiation Task, it depends on the circumstances. Maybe you could help a farmer that you know plant marigolds so he/she doesn't use much insecticide. You could also help a local organization, such as an animal shelter, get rid of overwintering stink bugs so that they are or appear to be a cleaner, healthier business. Planting marigolds and other ornamental plants around an animal shelter (with permission) would attract people (and butterflies) to the area.

Well, uh, that's it. Don't scowl at my poor closing sentence. It's bad manners.

Life-Changing Little Knots

Time: About 30 minutes per blanket
Skills needed: Measuring, cutting, tying

Think about this scenario:
You're in a cage, and your claws keep slipping through the bottom and cramping. Everything around you is made of metal, except the food and water and the flimsy cardboard litter pan. By the way, you're a cat, who's just been abandoned by the only people she's ever known, and now people are about to inject you with strange fluids.

After the injections, the spay surgery, the kennel cough medicines, and the unsuccessfully calmed sneezing fit, you'd like to take a nap. Only problem is, you're kind of trying to sleep on a metal grate. This is the problem we're trying to solve, and it's relatively self-explanatory.

The Snuggles Project, at http://www.snugglesproject.org/, is program that gives ideas for making blankets for homeless pets. Blankets, as said on the website, are scientifically proven to make pets significantly happier and more relaxed. A "frightened or difficult to handle animal" may become more adoptable from the calming effects of the blankets. Walking on a metal grate is also unhealthy for their paws. And now, down to business.

The easiest blanket to make that I found on the Snuggles Project "pattern library" is a No-Sew Polar Fleece Blanket. To make it, cut two squares of fleece to 28" by 28". They can be different colors. I won't insult your intelligence by telling you what colors we used.

(Our Nature Army, in their finest uniforms. Oh, well.)

Next, align the squares and cut a 3 inch fringe on all four sides. The fringes should be about half an inch wide. Tie the fringes together with whatever that knot is called that you use when you start to tie a shoe, but tie it twice. This is hard to explain in words, but we tied the light blue fringe to the dark blue one that it was aligned with. (Oops, I told you the colors.) There might be clearer instructions on the website, in the pattern library under "sewing."

The Humane Society of Harford County (http://www.harfordshelter.org/) greatly appreciates these blankets for their cats. By the way, don't think, "Oh, our blankets only need to be 22x22" instead of 28x28", so we'll make them smaller. The fringing technique reduces the length and width by about 6 inches each. We learned that with our pink fleece blanket on top of the stack, made of leftover fleece from a Halloween costume. Oh, well, a rabbit somewhere will use it. I'll brag that we made 9 blankets (count them, nine) for the Humane Society in less than 24 hours. And yes, we did eat and sleep.

   

 

Photos courtesy of http://www.kidbaltimore.com/.

Royal Palaces For The Ruling Avian Family

   

        

Time: 3 hours, if you're unreasonable like me

Skills: Creativity, Patience, Willingness To Clean Up-ness

It’s not very unique or anything. Painting birdhouses is just— well, fun! We’ve recently completed our fifth birdhouse. The first was the reddish one, the only solidly colored birdhouse, followed by the rather... exuberant specimen with the neon green and flowers. Next came the night-ish one followed by a strawberry one that was kicked out, due to inferiority to the flamingo birdhouse.

 

 

 

 

Encourage your child to spend a lot of time perfecting their birdhouse. Even solid colored designs need to have the drips cleaned up and maybe a second coat of paint, but don’t push them to spend too long on their birdhouse. When they’ve had enough, they’re done. A word to the wise: Paint smocks are not optional, unless perhaps you greatly enjoy laundry or other similar activities, particularly stain removal. Typically, a certain Nature Army member and I paint the background of the birdhouse first. Next, we paint the designs with a smaller brush, and use an even smaller brush to get inside cracks in the wood and fix details. We use acrylic paint and many newspapers. Like, the weekly County Chronicle over 3 months. Many newspapers. Unless you enjoy scrubbing and stain removal. Captain Obvious signing out.

 

If you want to build a birdhouse, I’d recommend keeping it simple. Bluebird houses are actually very specific, but not difficult. Her Highness the Bluebird and His Highness the Bluebird’s demands are easy to find online, so I won't go into that here. For an attractive single color birdhouse, try bending an old license plate in half for a roof. (Just make sure it’s legal in your area.) There are a bajillion (well, more like 16) birdhouse ideas at:

 

http://www.birdsandblooms.com/Backyard-Projects/Birdhouses?page=0

 

I must admit, I don’t think I’d be too keen about sleeping in the corner of a sideways house (look at the website; you’ll see what I mean), but it’s a neat idea. Anyway, the birds have their nest. There’s also a bluebird house on the website if you want to make one.

 

As for painting a birdhouse, there’s no how. Paint it how you want to. Stop when you want to stop. It’s not hard to figure out. The birdhouse is all about the creator. But once it makes that transfer from the house to the tree, or post, or trellis, or wherever you put your birdhouse, it’s all about the birds. Birds are mandatory.