Something VERY Strange

[Janet]

I'll try to keep this short, but I need to explain. This morning I was telling my husband that I keep finding this white pellet stuff (like styrofoam) under van, always in the same spot, but I just kept forgetting to tell him. He said he would check it out this evening, but he had forgotten to tell/ask me something too.

He said right outside the door to the big garage is a 'star.' He said it had been there for about a week...started out as a cross like image and now a star. We went out this morning while it was still dark and I took a few pictures of it. Then when I got home from the bus route I took a couple more in the light.

None of us know how it got there and neither of us has emptied anything there.

Anyway...here are the pics... the first one was early this morning while still dark and the last two after I got home from the route.


4205 4206 4207

[Tiramisu]

WOW - that is VERY strange. My guess is that an alien crashed there. I'm sure it's a good luck sign from above.

[Janet]

I'm just glad I didn't know it was there before they left for their Scout camping last weekend.

[Tiramisu]

I can't imagine what it is!

[Mandy]

I would send it to the paper, definatly! I think it's cute, but also wonder what it is!!

[celstu1]

Thats kind of neat looking!!!

[DianaB]

That's strange. I hope that you find out how it got there. I sure don't know what to tell you!

[Janet]

I have no idea how to figure out how it got there. I wish Rick would have told me about it when he first saw it, but it really didn't have much of a shape he said. Kind of a little cross or x and then just got bigger and then developed more points.

[judy]

I say you should feed it. Give it an orange or a banana. If it is an alien who landed under your van, at least it will like you. Try a beer too.

[2tiredmom]

Janet,

Maybe something is trying to tell you something. It's a sign............
Stars are good signs...................Just remember that. Have the white stuff tested.
Weird..............

[Gina]

wow that is strange.. do what Mandy says send it to local paper.. Let us know if you do...

[judy]

Gina,

I love Reuger's pumpkin costume! Is that last year's or this year's?

[Janet]

Judy....I'm not gonna waste a good beer on an Alien...LOL.

I don't know what it is and to tell you the truth...I don't even care anymore. Maybe it will take over the whole yard and we won't have to mow again. :)


Looks like someone has a little Yorkie all ready for Halloween...lol

[Mandy]

Janet, keep posting pics if it gets bigger or changes shape. I keep thinking about it, would love to know what it is.

[HALEY]

Judy....I'm not gonna waste a good beer on an Alien...LOL.

I don't know what it is and to tell you the truth...I don't even care anymore. Maybe it will take over the whole yard and we won't have to mow again. :)


Looks like someone has a little Yorkie all ready for Halloween...lol

Janet are you getting Alien's drunk now. i can't leave you alone for one min. LOL :D

[Gina]

Gina,

I love Reuger's pumpkin costume! Is that last year's or this year's?



Judy I have Gucci, Diana has Reuger lol. thats ok!!! Yes it was last years Halloween costume but she wouldn't stay still and needed a grooming desperately . lol

[judy]

...and I have CRS!

[Janet]

Hey...I know what CRS means....I just can't remember...LOLOL.


No Haley...I think Judy wanted me to get the aliens drunk, but I just can't waste a good beer...lol

[Nina]

Wow, that is VERY weird. What the heck? lol

[pope1982]

Maybe a squirrel got struck by lightening lol

[HALEY]

Hey...I know what CRS means....I just can't remember...LOLOL.


No Haley...I think Judy wanted me to get the aliens drunk, but I just can't waste a good beer...lol

I think you should have an alien party, and Judy and I can bring some beer and chips. LOL...

[judy]

Maybe a squirrel got struck by lightening lol

and just got flattened into the ground, like in the cartoons?

I like the alien theory better.

[Janet]

Maybe a squirrel got struck by lightening lol


Oh pope!!!


4236

[Janet]

It's still there. Not any bigger, but not any smaller. I am now a little paranoid...I watch the night skies more and that can be a good thing...I just don't want to see anything weird...lol

[Marilyn]

We have spots like that appearing all over the back half of our back yard, and we have a lawn service that treats the grass and our trees to keep them all healthy. They say it's some kind of fungus, and their treatments are not fixing it. Hubby has given me the task of finding someone to come and give us a second opinion tomorrow.

Maybe one of the aliens misfired when aiming at our yard and hit your yard by mistake.....

I love pope's theory though about the squirrel, only we don't have squirrels in our neighborhood. Maybe it's some other rodent exploding here.

[gja1000]

If it is a fungus, you can fix it yourself, Marilyn (and Janet). Mix two cups of milk in a gallon of water with a drop of liquid dishwashing soap (to make it stick to leaves/grass). Spray (or pour if not a big area) every five days. Do 3 applications of milk/water every five days. If it is a fungus, it will take care of it.

Marilyn, it could also be grubs - which the fungicides and milk (which is a natural fungicide) will not take care of it. You have to apply beneficial nematodes - you can buy them at an organic garden store. Follow the directions explicitely. They are living microscopic organisms that eat grub eggs and flea eggs, and also fire ant eggs. You won't have any of these critters in your yard if you use beneficial nematodes.

I'm the natural gardening queen :D

[Marilyn]

Gayle, hubby attended a men's BBQ at church today and the guys all decided it's cinch bugs. One of the guys lives across the fairway from us, and said he had the same problem They said to sprinkle cornmeal on the areas for 3 weeks. I had heard sprinkling Tide would work, so we're doing Tide on the front lawn and cornmeal in the back and will see if one of them works. It not, we will try the milk mixture you suggested or the beneficial nematodes. We do have fire ants from time to time, so couldn't hurt. Thank you for the gardening help!!

Don't think Janet expected this to turn into a gardening discussion. :D

Janet, has your spot changed shape any??? and is the white stuff still around??

[Janet]

The white stuff has mysteriously quit appearing, but the star is still there. Still no change is size either.

[Marilyn]

Gayle, just talked to hubby, and we're going to do it all. Spray with the milk solution let it dry, apply the cornmeal in back yd, Tide in front, and get the beneficial nematodes, too. We have an organic nursery in town, they are sure to have them.

Thanks for the advice. We should at least have a nourished lawn. ;)

I'm agravated though because we pay someone to take care of our grass and this happens!! What a waste!!

[Marilyn]

The white stuff has mysteriously quit appearing, but the star is still there. Still no change is size either.


Interesting, Janet!! Keep us posted. Seriously. I'm curious.

[gja1000]

Gayle, just talked to hubby, and we're going to do it all. Spray with the milk solution let it dry, apply the cornmeal in back yd, Tide in front, and get the beneficial nematodes, too. We have an organic nursery in town, they are sure to have them.

Thanks for the advice. We should at least have a nourished lawn. ;)

I'm agravated though because we pay someone to take care of our grass and this happens!! What a waste!!

Marilyn,
Yard services usually use chemicals to fertilize and control disease. Studies done by A&M showed that organic fertilizers work better than chemical fertilizers and that most organic solutions for diseases are just as effective as chemicals. If they have put fertilizer on your yard lately, that is what is feeding the fungus (if that is what it is). I let someone mow my yard, but I take care of all the feeding.

Never put nitrogen fertilizer on your yard where you have a fungus (or brown patches - unless you know it is grubs). Also, don't put the cornmeal where the fungus may be because it has a little nitrogen in it. However, if it is grubs, then the milk won't help and the cornmeal won't hurt. It will take the nematodes a few weeks to wipe out the grubs - since they eat the eggs, not the live grubs. But as the live grubs die with their natural life cycle, then no new ones will be born. You probably won't get green grass back till next summer - but you might, if it doesn't get too cold too soon.

Be sure to apply the nematodes when it is cool - I think evening is best. You have to mix the nematode dirt with water - don't use tap water, if it has chlorine in it - the chlorine will kill some of them, not all, but some. They must be watered into the soil thoroughly. Since you live so far south, they will make it through the winter and you won't have to apply them next year, and maybe not the next either, if you water in the summer. If you don't water once a week in the heat of the summer, they will dry out and die and you'll have to apply them again. You'll know they are gone when the fire ants return. I only apply them once every 2-3 years. We NEVER have fire ants or fleas in our yard. I haven't had to treat my two little Yorkies for fleas ever, unless we travel and stay out in the RV for a while.

Good luck!

[gja1000]

Marilyn (sorry to hijack your thread Janet) - here's a great website to help you with the diagnosis and treatment

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/growgreen/downloads/lawnproblems.pdf

[Marilyn]

Thank you, Gayle!! We can use distilled water to mix with the nematodes, but our regular water that we use on the lawn is chlorinated. Not much to do about that unless we try to filter it, which would take a pretty large filter.

(Kinda off the subject, but not really: A friend gave me some sour dough starter and I didn't know better and used warm chorlinated water when I fed the starter the first time, and thank goodness, it did not kill the culture. I used distilled water the second feeding and it perked right up and was very active. Reason I'm telling you this, I'm not sure our water has a very high level of chlorine, so it may not hurt the nematodes to use it to water the yard. Hopefully!)

[gja1000]

Hi Marilyn,
I think I misled you about the chlorinated water - use distilled when you mix the nematode dirt with water - before spraying it on. The nematode dirt has to set in the water for 30 minutes - that's when the chlorine might kill them or some of them. After 30 minutes, then you stain the dirt out of the water - the nematodes are microscopic and they go with the water. Then you spray them on the yard. When spraying it on the yard or watering the yard, regular chlorinated water is just fine and the nematodes will be just fine!

Good luck.

[donna1990]

That is strange, hope it is a sign of good luck.

[Janet]

All this talk about grass and dirt. We live in the country and if it grows its grows...LOLOL.

I know around town and in some subdivisions, people spend more on their lawns than I do on just about anything else. But it does look nice.

You can hijack my threads anytime..lol

[Marilyn]

Janet, I'm so glad you started this thread and don't mind us highjackers. LOL.

We're so glad to learn of the nematodes. We have such issues with fire ants and our next door neighbor has a couple of flea bitten dogs in a dog run adjacent to ours. So if nematodes kill flea and fire ant larvae, we're getting some.

With our mild climate, we have to work harder to keep things looking nice because we don't get the cleansing freezes that you do to kill the bugs and things.

We really don't pay a lot for the services we have. We use hardworking local folks who we have known for years. Since times are getting tighter, it would be nice to let them go and do it ourselves, but they need the business to pay their bills. We may cut the lawncare and tree guy back to just the trees though, since his lawncare has failed so miserably. We'll keep the guy who mows the lawn. His fallback job is hair styling which may be hurting also with the strained economy. The tree guy's wife co-owns, with her brother, a Chrystler/Jeep dealership. Her brother lives in our neighborhood. So they are not as dependant on us as the mower is.

[gja1000]

The other thing you can do is sprinkle diatamacious earth along the fence between your yard and the flea bitten dog's yard. When the fleas walk through the DE (to get to your yard - yes, they hop, but if they hop through it), they will die as DE is made of finely crushed sea shells and it cuts the flea's legs and they will die. It won't harm your dogs. You do have to reapply after a rain - but it rains so infrequently, that won't be a problem :D I have outdoor dogs on both sides of me and I still have no flea problems as long as I use nematodes. The fire ants will still try to live right beside the sidewalks - I guess it is too hot there for the nematodes - but the amount of fire ants is minimal. And there are NO MOUNDS!!!

The first year we put out nematodes, the fire ants went up and were living in our TREE! :eek: It didn't last long though, because they couldn't lay eggs up there!

[Marilyn]

Thank you, Gayle!! You are full of all kinds of information. What a cruel death for the flees though. LOL. We will check into the DE, and will let you know how all this turns out.

[judy]

Darn nematodes! I was so hoping for aliens.

[Janet]

Oh you crack me up Judy girl!!!


4255

[gja1000]

Judy! You are a card!!! :D

[Marilyn]

Judy, the nematodes are the fix, the grubs are the problem. Darn grubs. Aliens were much more exciting, gotta admit!!

[DianaB]

This turned into a funny thread. Dead squirrels, Tide, Cornmeal, Milk, Aliens.........:sidesplit: What do these things all have in common?

[gja1000]

This turned into a funny thread. Dead squirrels, Tide, Cornmeal, Milk, Aliens.........:sidesplit: What do these things all have in common?

I don't know, but if you figure it out, will you please let me know!! :confuse2::crazy::thinking:

[Janet]

They all have in common the ground, dirt, grass...weren't you reading the posts Diana???...LOL

[DianaB]

(Stomping foot) I was making a joke!!!!

[Tink]

Maybe the nemotodes ARE aliens? :eek:

[pope1982]

:scratchhead: There is something wrong with me, lol

[donna1990]

Sorry I have been missing out on this. You are all so funny.
I wouldn't share my beer either.

[Janet]

(Stomping foot) I was making a joke!!!!


I knew that.....LOLOLOL

[Janet]

:scratchhead: There is something wrong with me, lol

Oh Pope.... 4274




4275

[Dobie]

Any update on the exploding alien squirrels that are leaving strange shapes in the backyard?

[Janet]

Yes....Diana can now vouch for the strange star in the grass. She saw it too, don't know if she got a picture of it or now, but the star is still there.

[DianaB]

Yep, I saw it but I don't have a clue as to what caused it! :scratchhead:

[judy]

Pope,

I love the Jedi squirrel!

[Marilyn]

Well, our alien patches are still there. We didn't get the nematodes, yet, but Hubby has sprinkled Tide on the patches twice now, or maybe 3 times. Now someone has told him that Tide is too strong and it has something in it that will burn up the grass, so basically, he may have killed our lawn. Guess it will take a while to show up if he did.

Pope, maybe we should have hired one of your squirrels to patrol the lawn and find out what is attacking it. :lol2:

[judy]

I still say that you should give them beer. It's not a good idea to get possible alien nematodes angry!

It could be very cheap beer.

[Janet]

Judy, I just couldn't waste a good beer!!! Do you think it would work if I drank the beer and then peed on the lawn????

[HALEY]

Judy, I just couldn't waste a good beer!!! Do you think it would work if I drank the beer and then peed on the lawn????

:scratchhead::scratchhead::scratchhead::sidesplit: :sidesplit:

[DianaB]

:scratchhead::scratchhead::scratchhead::sidesplit: :sidesplit:

DITTO!!!!!!

[judy]

Judy, I just couldn't waste a good beer!!! Do you think it would work if I drank the beer and then peed on the lawn????

Brilliant! Do it - and keep us updated as to how they react.

[HALEY]

Brilliant! Do it - and keep us updated as to how they react.

take lots of pictures, i need a good laugh today... :camera::camera::photo::bleh::bleh::bleh: