I live in Houston Tx my back yard backs up to a bayou my back yard is like
1/4 to 1/2 acre. Need good tips or ideas for attracting bird bees
butterflies & bats to my back yard. Right now I have 2 bird feeders bird
bath bird house in my yard the plants I have are 2 big tress 1 medium size
tree some bushes small vine lots of small plants. What elese can I do to
attarct wild life to my back yard I am not looking for squerals.

DJboutit wrote:

I live in Houston Tx my back yard backs up to a bayou my back yard is like
1/4 to 1/2 acre. Need good tips or ideas for attracting bird bees
butterflies & bats to my back yard. Right now I have 2 bird feeders bird
bath bird house in my yard the plants I have are 2 big tress 1 medium size
tree some bushes small vine lots of small plants. What elese can I do to
attarct wild life to my back yard I am not looking for squerals.

Convince the government that it needs to do something about the horrible air
pollution problem in Houston and perhaps the wild life will come back.

I desiced to start a tree biology list.

http://lists.ccil.org/cgi-bin/mailma...o/tree_biology


We will see how it goes.

Sincerely,

John A. Keslick, Jr.
Tree Biologist
http://www.chesco.com/~treeman
Beware of so-called TREE EXPERTS who do not understand TREE BIOLOGY!
www.treedictionary.com

"DJboutit" wrote in message
...
I live in Houston Tx my back yard backs up to a bayou my back yard is like
1/4 to 1/2 acre. Need good tips or ideas for attracting bird bees
butterflies & bats to my back yard. Right now I have 2 bird feeders bird
bath bird house in my yard the plants I have are 2 big tress 1 medium size
tree some bushes small vine lots of small plants. What elese can I do to
attarct wild life to my back yard I am not looking for squerals.




Get yourself a butterfly bush. My new house came with one and it's amazing.
There were so many butterflies & bees around it (until the cold weather
arrived) that it looked like something out of a Disney movie: animated bug
banquet. However, if anyone in the household is terrified of bees, don't
plant it near any of the doors to the house. Mine attracted bees the size of
golf balls. I still managed to weed around the bush during feeding time
without being bothered. A couple of times, the bees smacked into my arm in
their rush to get back to the feast. I think they're like little kids
rushing to the piñata at a birthday party - they don't notice anything else.

Oh....and the flowers smell terrific.

Doug Kanter wrote:
.... I still managed to weed around the bush during feeding time
without being bothered. A couple of times, the bees smacked into my arm in
their rush to get back to the feast. I think they're like little kids
rushing to the piñata at a birthday party - they don't notice anything else...


Foraging honeybees aren't normally agressive (at least in New England --
I don't know anything about the african strains, which are not winter
hardy up here). They will sting if trapped or if they feel threatened.
However, you can brush them off flowers with your finger without any
problem as long as you allow them a way to escape.

When they get old and crochety, they are relegated to hive guard duty,
where they will threaten intruders to their personal space.

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 05:07:05 GMT, "DJboutit" in
rec.gardens wrote:

I live in Houston Tx my back yard backs up to a bayou my back yard is like
1/4 to 1/2 acre. Need good tips or ideas for attracting bird bees
butterflies & bats to my back yard. Right now I have 2 bird feeders bird
bath bird house in my yard the plants I have are 2 big tress 1 medium size
tree some bushes small vine lots of small plants. What elese can I do to
attarct wild life to my back yard I am not looking for squerals.



Plant some physiotegia (sp) commonly known as "mother-in-law's tongue" (?)
Within three years you will have more physiotegia than you want and more
bumblebees (the cute little feller's!) than you can shake the proverbial
stick at -- I do in the fall and though I am sure that they will sting if
cornered and bothered I have literally slapped them out of the way.

(You know that irritating "Nexium" commercial about the purple pill that ran
incessantly a while back? I am pretty sure that the purple field they were
in was physiotegia -- at least it sure did look like about half of my
backyard, where I planted a dozen *single* physiotegia plants about 5 years
ago.)


FACE

"Paul E. Lehmann" wrote in message ...

Convince the government that it needs to do something about the horrible air
pollution problem in Houston and perhaps the wild life will come back.

Houston's air pollution problem was with ground-level ozone ONLY.
According to the EPA, there are SIX components or kinds of air
pollution, ozone being just ONE of them.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache...tates%22&hl=en
"According to EPA, Los Angeles' air still is ranked in a poorer
category than the air in Houston. While Houston violates the federal
standard for ozone, Los Angeles violates the standards for ozone,
carbon monoxide, and particulate matter."

http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_sout....af.0.a4.cccba.
html
"In some ways, calling Houston America's smoggiest city misrepresented
the relative quality of air in the two cities. Los Angeles' air is
worse than Houston's in other categories."

More recent info on ozone violations:

http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=50752
Metropolitan Areas with the Worst Ozone Air Pollution
1 LOS ANGELES-RIVERSIDE-ORANGE COUNTY, CA
2 FRESNO, CA
3 BAKERSFIELD, CA
4 VISALIA- -PORTERVILLE, CA
5 HOUSTON-BAYTOWN-HUNTSVILLE, TX CMSA
6 MERCED, CA
7 SACRAMENTO-ARDEN-ARCADE--TRUCKEE, CA-NV
8 HANFORD-CORCORAN, CA
9 KNOXVILLE-SEVIERVILLE-LA FOLLETTE, TN
10 DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX CMSA

And overall air quality:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...olitan/2056693
Number of days in 2000-2002 when air quality was unhealthy
1. Riverside-San Bernardino, Ca. 445 days
2. Fresno, Ca. 421
3. Bakersfield, Ca. 409
4. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Ca. 255
5. Sacramento, Ca. 163
6. Pittsburgh, Penn. 134
7. Knoxville, Tenn. 109
8. Birmingham, Al. 100
9. Houston, Tx. 94
10. Baltimore, Md. 93

And particle pollution:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science....ap/index.html
".... 1999-2001 EPA data, do not take into account a pollutant that's
considered more dangerous than smog -- tiny particles of soot
that can lodge deep in the lungs and cause heart problems and even
death."

http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=50752
Metropolitan Areas Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution
1 LOS ANGELES-LONG BEACH-RIVERSIDE, CA
2 VISALIA-PORTERVILLE, CA
3 BAKERSFIELD, CA
4 FRESNO-MADERA, CA
5 PITTSBURGH-NEW CASTLE, PA
6 DETROIT-WARREN-FLINT, MI
7 ATLANTA-SANDY SPRINGS-GAINESVILLE, GA
8 CLEVELAND-AKRON-ELYRIA, OH
9 HANFORD-CORCORAN, CA
10 BIRMINGHAM-HOOVER-CULLMAN, AL
(Houston is not on the list of 26 cities)

Look up "bat box" on google & you will find patterns on how to build &
where best to mount a bat nesting box, or many vendors selling bat boxes.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com