Yard Work Weekend

I took the day off yesterday to oversee the visit from American Pest Professionals, which came over with a pressurized spray rig to work under my house. Only one guy showed up. And, while he was able to fit into the entrance to the crawlspace, he could not get past the metal duct from the furnace to the bathroom.

Nonetheless, the pest guy managed to spray most of the crawlspace with his insecticide. The spray rig, I was told, can reach up to thirty feet, which would cover most of the underside of the house. When it is drier, I will have the exterminators come over to go into the crawlspace from under the kitchen sink, and to spray the foundation.

It is nice to know that I am not the only one with an ant problem. I chatted with my neighbors across the street while doing my yard work stint, and learned that they have an ant problem, too.

That yard work stint lasted most of the weekend and into Monday. I bought a dethatching rake — a two-sided rake made with blades in the shapes of slight crescents, used for removing dead grass from lawns. I found it very effective, although it had a tendency to tear out sod as well. I bought a pair of aerating sandals, with inch-long spikes, online; however, I could not get them to stay on my shoes. So I bought a lawn aerator with two tines mounted on a step bar. With both I worked over a section of the back yard that is mostly thatch, after which I applied seed, fertilizer and weed killer. I did the same to the front lawn.

I also bought some lawn patch for the bare spots in my lawn. I know this will work because lawn patch is the same kind of stuff that Ball State's grounds workers use: Basically it is papier-maché impregnated with grass seed, fertilizer and weed killer.