An allergy is actually one's body attacking itself. If weakened immune systems make some people suscepible to pathogens, such as those some yack about in cat poop, I take it you have never had a serious allergy attack and what that does to ones system. I spent two days sitting in a chair due to a doctor giving me a medicine I was allergic to after the doctor who gave me the medicine said if my headache, no one ever found out what caused it, did not go away within three days he was going to send me for a brain scan. The headache went away, I recovered from looking like the poppin fresh dough boy. Some allergins make you simply puff up and it is very hard to go up and down stairs and breathe. Later, same year, I spent forty days in the hospital as the specialist said "we will send you home when we find the bug that is killing you." Are they related not likely. Had they happened at the same time, as the doctor who cut me open was amazed I was able to walk into the hospital, had the allergies happened later only God knows how that would have turned out. So if one is not allergic to much of anything, any poop related pathogens will probaly just give the one the runs and a few headaches but if the one has allergies, the one becomes far, far more susceptible to a pathogen attacking the one's immunes system as it may be compromised from the body already attacking itself. I never had the test and learned and recovered the hard ways. Get the test and one will know a lot more about how well his immune system is working.

Good luck with getting some rain. We have had a lot lately. Came close to having snow, but it just missed us. Everything here is wet, muddy and soggy. A couple of days of sun and we'll be back to normal. Good luck with your garden. Post pictures so we can see your work. Brenda South LA Here is a link that might be useful: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/575578430PXcgMP

Today . . . (knock on wood !!!), the ants aren't winning, but then we're due for a big rain, so I'm sure they'll be coming back in droves !!! Weed, thanks for the tip on Tat - will make a HD run and pick some up -- Figure I'll try everything mentioned here - Flyleft -- I squished the ants, and no smell -- so guess they're just run-of-the-mill annoying no-use ants !! (Not that they would be useful if they had an odor !!) Lisa, interesting that you mentioned granite !! Our granite is Vyara, and parts of it has black/blue small specks that really do keep the ants camouflaged sometimes. Just yukky !!! However, I do love my granite, so price to pay, I guess !!! Compumom, I'm beginning to think that we will have to resort to an exterminator, much as I hate to, because I'm thinking they just have to be hanging out in our walls !! They were coming out of the granite edges, so obviously are between the granite and plywood somehow -- and I haven't a CLUE how they get into the dishwasher !! THAT is what's really irritating me !!!!!! OH -- WELL !!! -- I could certainly have worse things to deal with, so guess I should keep this all in perspective ! They really do tend to get on that last nerve, however !!! Thanks again, everyone, for your tips !!! C.

In some ways I have experimented about the blotching. Since I grow in smallish pots I can move them under my porch to protect them from morning dew. It does seem to help quite a bit. But this is limited by the available room on my back porch, and doesn't help those in the ground. The baggy solution that is used on roses would have to be more monitored on daylilies then roses so that the bag was removed at just the right stage. I don't know how long a daylily bloom can be confined to a bag that won't allow it to fully open before the bloom would be permanently harmed. AND too, even with the bag solution, if Thrips are the problem then you may already have trapped a few when you put on the bag. One of the reasons I became enamored with daylilies is that I didn't have to fuss with all this, so I will leave the baggy experiment to some early riser who wants to play scientist.........Maryl