The biggest factor in what will be effective against critters is the density of their population. I live by two large wild life preserves and have a neighbor next door who feeds the deer, so the population is very large and completely unafraid of humans. Rabbits also have come to love the diversity of plants in our yard, and because we have several acres of woods (why don't they just stay there???), their population is abundant as well. I have used sprays containing bitters, peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, and any other smelly thing you can imagine, have gotten hair from the barbers, used fox and coyote urine (expensive as all get out and so nasty to use), even went so far as to use mothballs before I found out how toxic they are, had the men in my family run out in the early morning and pee around the plants, tried interplanting with mint, garlic, etc., and nothing worked for more than a short period. And I don't think I have a single plant out of the hundreds I grow that has not been browsed at one time or another, regardless of how many Pest Resistant lists they may be on. Soaps are effective if your critter population is not too large; contrary to what most folks think, it is not the perfumy smell of Irish Spring that repels, it is the tallow (fat) content of the soap. A friend who runs a commercial apple orchard tried it over the winter with absolutely NO success and felt it was actually detrimental in keeping pollinating bees away the following spring. Pepper sprays are a taste repellant--if you have a lot of deer or rabbits, they each need to take a bite of the plant to realize it's been sprayed as they don't tell each other that what you've sprayed tastes nasty, which means if you have lots of pests, they will still eat down your plants before they all become aware they've been sprayed. Actually, the one time I used a pepper-based spray, the rabbits ate everything I'd sprayed overnight--I think they thought it was a flavor enhancer. Several years ago I used a garlic based spray but there were certain things such as zinnias and sunflowers that were eaten off despite it. By early August the critters were used to it and ate anything and everything I had sprayed, and the only thing it continued to do was give me a huge craving for garlic bread every time I applied it. I have heard that Milorganite does work well as a repellant; however, it is not considered organic (it contains sludge), so I've never tried it. One of the great things about the 20% egg spray is that if you whir it up in a blender and spray it immediately, it will not clog up your sprayer. There is no need to ferment egg sprays--it is not the stink that keeps animals away, it is the smell of the protein from the eggs (if stinky smells kept rabbits/deer away, I'd simply drape my husband's socks around the yard). And at a concentration of 20% eggs, the spray does not wash away as quickly as one with a lesser content which means applications can be less frequent (you will need to experiment to determine what is necessary with your garden). Plants (such as lilies) which are deer and rabbit magnets I spray after every hard rain; other things get sprayed I would guess maybe every six weeks. The best testimonial I've had for this spray is from a friend of mine who lives on an island. Years ago a rabbit farmer on the island gave up his business and released dozens of rabbits, which, well, bred like rabbits. There are no natural predators on the island so the rabbits have destroyed almost every plant, even girdling large trees. I gave her the recipe for the egg spray and she has a garden again. She makes up several gallons of the stuff and sprays EVERYTHING. She even uses it over the winter, spraying in late fall and on days in the winter when the temperature reaches above freezing. The neighbors she has passed the recipe on to have had great success as well, and she kids me that they are going to erect a "St. Kate" statue in my honor, lol. I have also not seen any effect on wanted wildlife, such as bees, butterflies, frogs, toads, walking sticks, etc. I spray it on the plants next to the water garden and it has no effect on the tadpoles, polywogs, and dragon fly larvae. Of course, this means it will not be harmful to bad bugs either--you'll still have to use something to control insect damage (I use organic products with Neem oil for that). Forgive me if I sound overly enthusiastic about this, but it has worked so well for me and has made gardening fun again. I can go outside in the morning and look forward to seeing what is in bloom, NOT what has been eaten off during the night. Here's to a great gardening season! Kate

I particularly like the Dick Gregory quotes, I always thought he was underrated as a performer,

In_awe - My 2xT5HO were 4" away from my plants. They did very well with 10000 lumens at that height. I do agree that lumens aren't a very good measure, lux/fc are better, and PAR is the best. One problem I find with a single number for measuring output is that light distribution with T5HO and LED lights is not uniform. Light distribution end to end and from center to sides is quite important to me because I have a limited grow area. My target light level is 24 PAR DLI for my high light succulents and 10 PAR DLI for my Haworthia. Roughly that's 1200-3000 fc, depending on the plant. Some of my Haworthia only need 250-500 fc. Required light levels differs significantly. In general, I've found truncata/emelyae/hard-leaved species to be quite resilient and take a lot of light. Obtusa/retusa are middlish. Picta and springbok don't like it too bright and marxii pretty much stay in the shade. I'm curious to hear other's experience with this! If you're looking to increase your light levels to get more colourful Haworthia, the two easiest ways are decreasing fixture height slightly or increasing the duration the are on. Pagan - Good luck with your experiment! If you don't already have a fc/lux meter, $10 on ebay is well worth it for purely relative light measurements. Nil - I already have a PAR meter and two lux meters (one is owned by my work), but for curiosity's sake I've contacted my local Apogee dealer to see how much they are charging for the SQ-520. Hopefully will hear back from them tomorrow. Think I need to do some more overtime to pay for all these toys!

I wanted to give an update on my lingering shingles residual pain in my hip. I have been taking amitripitiline and tramadol 25 mg at night for a different condition. However it has helped reduce the intensity of the pain in my hip from the shingles. It has not completely gone away but it is much less painful and doesn't itch as much either. I am not happy about taking the tramadol nightly but since it is helping multiple problems I guess it is worth it.