Hello Everyone, You are all right. All your methods work. We all fall into the trap of it doesn't work anymore. OR 24 hrs and they are back. All I can say is you have to look at your situation and be smart. If you live in an apartment, expect roaches. If you live near a restaurant, expect rats. If you live in a house with landscape, expect spiders, ants and mice. Bottom line. MICE: Look around before you open the door, and don't leave your doors open. Make your screen doors snug around the edges. Try to screen off your roof vents or openings with metal screen. Plug up holes with steel wool. Leave traps up year round and eventually they will be gone. If not for good, a long time. An old building was demolished across our street and it took a year to get rid of them as they were looking for a new home. Been there!! ANTS: Its not just you.....what about your neighbor. My neighbor was collecting soda bottles outside his house as I discovered.......which created a SUGAR ANT SUPER COLONY. Guess where they decided to live?....That's right!!! in my garden. Borax and sugar bombs worked great. However, they were only control devices. We had to open up the ground and burst the colony, then spray. We left bombs inside and out, as well as next to all the ant ports. Eventually.......gone. But.....they are never gone, so don't be fooled. We also used bates of three Brand names....only temporary. Borax bombs worked best. ECO SPRAY Seems to do a good job. We also use peppermint and lemon essential oil as a spray to finish coat on our counters and other areas where they might wonder. Just a quick coat before we go to bed and no visitors in the morning. They hate that stuff and so do spiders. The spray mix so far does not damage anything. We use consumable essential oil...in other words we can eat it. If you need help getting some, I can direct you where to get it. We noticed in our new home that we had a different kind of ant. A protein ant as others have stated. So we left some ice cream on the counter all night for two days. Not a single ant. But, when we used a frying pan, and even washed it.....they came to visit again. Soooo............here are some tips. Ask the correct questions first. What are they going after? How big are they? What is our weather like? Where are they located? (Kitchen, Bathroom, Shower). Can I trace the ant trail outside? Do I think the nest is inside? Once you have done that...take it from there. SPIDERS: They really are a pain. Lots of trees? Lots of spiders. Lots of junk? Lots of spiders. And so on. Don't give them a home or opportunity, and you wont have a problem. Lemon pledge, Lemon and peppermint essential oil spray, keeping your house orderly, and window sills clear will help a lot. We use our diffuser with essential oils and they don't seem to appear anymore. I leave essential oils in bottle caps under the couch, closet and hidden corners, and again no appearances. Determine what type of spider you have the most in the same way you did with the ants. Sometimes they are just lost checking out your house and trying on your shoes!! (Joking) Do some reading and try different things. I read once where a couple had a super spider invasion and could not get rid of them. They were in everything and everywhere. When any pest problem gets to this level.............call a professional. ****No matter how you slice it....you share space with all of these creatures because your dwelling is on the ground somehow, and someway. You don't have to kill every spider you see...just keep it from coming in. You get what you put into it!! Bottom line. If you want to get rid of them....you have to go the extra mile. If you go the extra mile as I did when I dug up the ant colonies.......you get the big results. Like everything else in your house............its work. And it has to be done. And remember...the BUGMAN is like your Auto Mechanic.....do you think he will tell you everything!!??? It's up to you!!!!! Good Luck.

Can gentically engineered foods help feed the hungry? Are anti-GMO activists and over-zealous environmentalists standing in the way of the hungry being fed? The hope that GMO foods might bring solutions to malnutrition and world hunger was never more dramatically illustrated than when Time magazine ran a cover story titled "Grains of Hope." The article joyfully announced the development of a genetically engineered "golden rice." This new strain of GM rice has genes from viruses and daffodils spliced into its genetic instructions. The result is a form of rice that is a golden-yellow color (much like daffodil flowers), and that produces beta-carotene, which the human body normally converts into Vitamin A. Nearly a million children die every year because they are weakened by Vitamin A deficiencies and an additional 350,000 go blind. Golden rice, said Time, will be a godsend for the half of humanity that depends on rice for its major staple. Merely eating this rice could prevent blindness and death. The development of golden rice was, it seemed, compelling and inspiring evidence that GM crops are the answer to malnutrition and hunger. Time quoted former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: "Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy, starvation is." Shortly after the Time cover story, Monsanto and other biotechnology companies launched a $50 million marketing campaign, including $32 million in TV and print advertising. The ads, complete with soft focus fields and smiling children, said that "biotech foods could help end world hunger." Other ad campaigns have followed. One Monsanto ad tells the public: "Biotechnology is one of tomorrow's tools in our hands today. Slowing its acceptance is a luxury our hungry world cannot afford." Within a few months, the biotech industry had spent far more on these ads than it had on developing golden rice. Their purpose? "Unless I'm missing something," wrote Michael Pollan in The New York Times Magazine, "the aim of this audacious new advertising campaign is to impale people like me -- well-off first-worlders dubious about genetically engineered food -- on the horns of a moral dilemma ... If we don't get over our queasiness about eating genetically modified food, kids in the third world will go blind." The implication of the ads is that lifesaving food is being held hostage by anti-science activists. In the years since Time proclaimed the promises of golden rice, however, we've learned a few things. For one thing, we've learned that golden rice will not grow in the kinds of soil that it must to be of value to the world's hungry. To grow properly, it requires heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides -- expensive inputs unaffordable to the very people that the variety is supposed to help. And we've also learned that golden rice requires large amounts of water -- water that might not be available in precisely those areas where Vitamin A deficiency is a problem, and where farmers cannot afford costly irrigation projects. And one more thing -- it turns out that golden rice doesn't work, even in theory. Malnourished people are not able to absorb Vitamin A in this form. And even if they could, they'd have to eat an awful lot of the stuff. An 11-year-old boy would have to eat 27 bowls of golden rice a day in order to satisfy his minimum requirement for the vitamin. I'm sure that given enough time and enough money, some viable genetically modified (GM) crops could be developed that contain more nutrients or have higher yields. But I'm not sure that even if that were to happen, it would actually benefit the world's poor. Monsanto and the other biotech companies aren't developing these seeds with the intention of giving them away. If people can't afford to buy GM seeds, or if they can't afford the fertilizers, pesticides and water the seeds require, they'll be left out. Poverty is at the root of the problem of hunger. As Peter Rosset, director of Food First, reminds us, "People do not have Vitamin A deficiency because rice contains too little Vitamin A, but because their diet has been reduced to rice and almost nothing else." And what, pray tell, has reduced these people to such poverty and their diets to such meager fare? In the words of the British writer George Monbiot: The world has a surplus of food, but still people go hungry. They go hungry because they cannot afford to buy it. They cannot afford to buy it because the sources of wealth and the means of production have been captured and in some cases monopolized by landowners and corporations. The purpose of the biotech industry is to capture and monopolize the sources of wealth and the means of production ... GM technology permits companies to ensure that everything we eat is owned by them. They can patent the seeds and the processes which give rise to them. They can make sure that crops can't be grown without their patented chemicals. They can prevent seeds from reproducing themselves. By buying up competing seed companies and closing them down, they can capture the food market, the biggest and most diverse market of all. No one in her right mind would welcome this, so the corporations must persuade us to focus on something else ... We are told that ... by refusing to eat GM products, we are threatening the developing world with starvation, an argument that is, shall we say, imaginative ... With rare exceptions, genetically engineered crops are being created not because they're productive or because they address real human needs, but because they're patentable. The biotech companies have invested billions of dollars because they sense in this technology the potential for enormous profit and the means to gain control over the world's food supply. Their goal is not to help subsistence farmers feed themselves. Their goal is maximum profit. While Monsanto would like us to believe they are seeking to alleviate world hunger, there is actually a very dark side to the company's efforts. For countless centuries farmers have fed humanity by saving the seed from one years crop to plant the following year. But Monsanto, the company that claims its motives are to help feed the hungry, has developed what it calls a "Technology Protection System" that renders seeds sterile. Commonly known as "terminator technology" and developed with taxpayer funding by the USDA and Delta & Pine Land Company (an affiliate of Monsanto), the process genetically alters seeds so that their offspring will be sterile for all time. If employed, this technology would ensure that farmers cannot save their own seeds, but would have to come back to Monsanto year after year to purchase new ones. Critics refer to these genetically engineered seeds as suicide seeds. "By peddling suicide seeds, the biotechnology multinationals will lock the world's poorest farmers into a new form of genetic serfdom," says Emma Must of the World Development Movement. "Currently 80 percent of crops in developing countries are grown using farm-saved seed. Being unable to save seeds from sterile crops could mean the difference between surviving and going under." To Monsanto and other GMO companies, the terminator and other seed sterilizing technologies are simply business ventures that are designed to enhance profits. In this case, there is not even the implication of benefit to consumers. I wish I could speak more highly of GM foods and their potential. But the technology is now held tightly in the hands of corporations whose motives are, I'm afraid, very different from what they would have us believe. Despite the PR, Monsanto's goal is not to make hunger history. It's to control the staple crops that feed the world. Will GMOs help end world hunger? I don't think so. John Robbins is the author of many bestsellers including "The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World," the classic "Diet For A New America" and "The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less." He is the recipient of the Rachel Carson Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award and Green America's Lifetime Achievement Award. To learn more about his work, visit www.johnrobbins.info This Blogger's Books from The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less by John Robbins Food Revolution, The: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World by John Robbins Many supporters of GMO seeds, are Monsanto supporters. Who is in charge of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service ? I believe it was Tom Vilsack,who is now a member of the cabnit our current Secretary.Who is Tom Vilsack?Google him and find out. Our Supreme Court Justice,Clarence Thomas,,,Used to Work for who> Monsanto.and several top positions in the Food and Drug Administration,and the Department of Agriculture,all filled with former Monsanto Lobbyist, do you really want to believe any thing these people say? I can post more articall s,but I will not, enough has been said,if you are interested at all, in what you, your children,and grandchildren are eating, do your research,,make up your own mind,in the mean time,keep saving your seeds.You might want to google, how many seed saving banks are left here in the U.S., compared to how many there used to be, and why. cAROL

Synopsis... as of 3 am...a 991mb surface low is located just west of Jefferson City MO...with rapid pressure falls to the east and northeast of this low. The rain snow line is approximately from Stockton Illinois...to Iowa City...to near Ottumwa...with convection along and south of that axis continuing to produce occasional burst of heavy wet snow...while a more steady snow continues to the north. Farther south...upright thunderstorms continue to fire from near kirks ville through the quadrant cities...this convection earlier brought thundersnow...but is now a mix by latest reports or just rain. Heavy snow and blowing snow is found from central Iowa through eastern Kansas. An incredible evolution of dynamics is set to take place today as a new deformation zone is forecast to develop over the County Warning Area as temperatures aloft become cold enough for all snow. During this time...a massive pressure drop is forecast creating favorable conditions wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour through this evening. Short term... today will be tremendously changeable day...as the central areas begin with moderate to heavy rain and thunderstorms...then rapidly change over to heavy wet snow and high winds...blizzard conditions. Our west should see high winds develop around 5 to 7 am...and a Blizzard Warning continues...now until midnight. Have upgraded the central counties to Blizzard Warning through midnight as secondary deformation zone is forecast by all models...and is now forming in eastern Kansas as shown on satellite and radar. This new def zone should be very intense...and compared to the current one over Iowa and Nebraska...it should be smaller in size. This tightening is common with very intense cyclones...and should not be viewed as a diminishing feature. The gradient of around 30 mb over Iowa today should be more than enough for very high winds sustained around 40 miles per hour...gusting to 50 - 60 miles per hour through this evening. Tree damage and power-line damage certainly appears likely due to wet snow accumulation on them stressed farther by high winds. Visibilities should be sub 1/4 in open areas over most the County Warning Area in heavy snow today. ... it begins... it appears the Burlington through quadrant cities to Freeport counties will not change until 9 am to 11 am...but once it does... a high impact event will unfold. Rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour should allow for a quick 4 to 8 inches of snow along the Mississippi River in southeast Iowa northeast to around Freeport. Heavy quantitative precipitation forecast in models is concerning for more snow...and will be watched closely as things evolve...though the wind is as much as a threat as any with this event.

LOL Well, not much time to answer everything so I won't try but yes, I am having a great time reading this. Curious how the first to stomp is also the avid defender of telemarketers! Shall we start a thread on them again? Ruthie, you're quite a surprise. Didn't know you were one who likes to block aisles and doesn't understand the term "excuse me". I was raised to move if blocking the aisle and someone said excuse me. Perhaps it's a local thing? I guess we learn something every day don't we? Must be having a bad day when you have to make up things to complain about. "...post a long diatribe about everything including the number of hours the employees are allowed to work..." Uh, exactly where did I talk about employees long hours and the like! Did you accidentally get some fiberglass in the washer with your underwear? Fall down in the cockleburrs? Sheesh! LOL And of course the tyrades by the "holier than thou" who feel they should decide who posts, what they post about, and their overworn cliches, well it's interesting and dang amusing to read the posts. Don't worry. I'm not offended. If you haven't learned by now I have a very thick skin! Political correctness isn't high on my priority list. Being an old cripple I learned a long time ago that there's two things about certain people I don't like - their face. Curious to see how many must use multiple mirrors! Since this forum is so often the cyber church it's only appropriate isn't it for another deity to come out. The Walmart worshipers are likely on their knees praying to their deity-du-jour, pop open a bottle of Sam's Choice for communion, making up things to throw temper tantrums about and more. Guess following forum rules is a buffet thing these days. Take the ones you like and leave the rest. :) Happy shopping people!