Last Chance To See 600 sq mi: Hidden
Missed Connections: Gefilte Fish...and "Chain Connections"
H-Town Rock
Rock Talk, Vol. IX
Houstonist has seen them: crawling around the bathroom, flitting through doors, hovering in the kitchen. And Houstonist has felt them: at dusk, after a rain, or mysteriously, in the middle of the afternoon. The bugs have returned in force, and we recommend you do something about them.
Educate: The Texas Bug Book: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is a top-notch tome, with up-close pictures and information on life cycles, habitats, economic importance, natural and organic control. The authors realize that not all bugs are bad, and not all methods of killing the bad ones are good for everybody else. Peppered between the pages are bug anecdotes by the coauthors, who between them share the titles of landscape architect, certified arborist, horticulturist, and practitioner of organic practices. A treat to leaf through, and certainly a provocative coffee table book.
Eliminate: Besides taking care of obvious drainage issues to get rid of bugs, Houstonist recommends *not* poisoning our fine city's drinking water with insecticides. Instead, consult with the folks at Nature's Pest Solutions, who use USDA National Organic Program Products. The company takes care of termites, mosquitoes and other pests. Houstonist finds that last category quite broad, but we are assuming Nature's Pest means the six-legged kind.
Celebrate: The renovated Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science re-opens Friday, May 25th. All throughout Memorial Day Weekend is BUGStravaganza, a celebration for the reopening of of Museum's Brown Hall of Entomology. Expect to find a bug chef, bees and honey, roach races, a puppet show, "Stump the Entomologist," and other delights for the young, old and middle-aged.
Remunerate: Lordy, we never thought we'd see this. The Natural Science Museum is also offering cash for cockroaches: the live, healthy kind. Houstonist is too grossed out to think about it, but if you have extra bugs, you may be in luck. The new Insect Wing needs your help.
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It's bug bite season again! Everyone wants to avoid their nasty tricks.
Here are a few tips from Therapik®:
Bees have five eyes – they're always looking for the next victim.
• Bees and wasps fly at only 4 miles per hour. If headed towards you, they're bound to kamikaze into your skin.
• There are over three thousand different kinds of mosquitoes in the world. Most live in the tropics, but some even live in the Arctic.
• A mosquito wing beats from 300-600 times per second - so fast, you can hardly see one.
“Today Show” viewers will undoubtedly be victims of a sting or bite this summer, and they will want to know about Therapik, a hand-held device that provides temporary relief from the pain of an insect bite or sting by delivering a shot of heat to the affected area. The heat neutralizes the venom and helps to avoid swelling and itchiness.
The underlying principle of heat treatment is that the venom of a wide range of insects is thermolabile, meaning the venom is neutralized by heat. The temperature has to be fairly high, 120° to 140°F (50° to 60°C), and since the venom is not at the surface, this means getting the skin surface as hot as you can bear to generate the necessary heat at depth. The Therapik works like a charm.
It is most effective on fresh bites (the venom has not invaded the tissue very far), but removes itchiness from even day-old bites. It works in less than 30 seconds and is effective against the venom of bees, hornets, wasps, mosquitoes, blackflies, ants, jellyfish, fleas, ticks and even stinging nettle.
Therapik® was field-tested by the FDA and Canadian TPP. It received Seals of Approval from the North American Fishing Club and The National Home Gardening Club and has also been featured in Parents Magazine, on Outdoors Arizona, Outdoors America and on KABC TV.
Every camper, outdoor sports fanatic, porch-sitter, and concerned parent should have a Therapik on hand this summer. For further information, please call me. I'd be happy to send you a sample. Therapik is available to purchase, $12.95, online at www.buyatherapik.com.