July is a month rich in American History!  Brush up on your history knowledge and finish first at Trivia Pursuit when you read our July history blog!

July 1, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg started during the American Civil War.

July 2, 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot and wounded as he entered a railway station in Washington, D.C. He died of his wounds on September 19th.

July 4, 1776, 56 men from different backgrounds gathered to sign the Declaration of Independence and ushered in the greatest nation on earth.

July 4, 1863, the stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi surrendered to General Grant.

July 7, 1898, a resolution annexing Hawaii was signed by President William McKinley.

July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence to an assembled crowd in Philadelphia. This was the first public reading.

July 16, 1945, the first Atomic Bomb was set off at 5:30 a.m. in the New Mexico desert creating a 41,000 ft. mushroom cloud.

July 18, 1863, Charleston, South Carolina saw the first use of Black Union Troops during the American Civil War.

July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the moon. He stepped onto the moon and proclaimed, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

July 27, 1953, The Korean war ended.

April showers brought May flowers and lots of history too!  Brush up on your history trivia with these interesting dates in May history.

May 4, 1886, a confrontation between police and labor protesters would be called The Haymarket Square Riot. Seven policemen were killed and over 50 wounded.

May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of 1,000 students at Kent State University killing four. The students were protesting President Richard Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia.

May 5, 1865, was declared Decoration Day by General John Logan. May 30th started the tradition of decorating soldiers’ graves from the Civil War with flowers. Congress moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May 1971.

May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Brown v. Board of Education. It concluded that segregation of public schools “solely on the basis of race” denies black children “equal educational opportunity” even though “physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may have been equal. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens volcano erupted.

Memorial Day. 

May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam failed and over 2,200 people were killed in Johnstown Pennsylvania.

It’s spring in Texas. The winter slumber is now over for all of Mother Nature’s critters including everyone’s favorite parasite, the CHIGGER! Also known as a red bug, berry bugs, harvest mites, scrub-itch mites, and those low life, belly crawling, pond scum sucking………. Chiggers are such an irritant that the US Army has a fact sheet on them. For us homeowners, the best defense is a good offense. Chiggers come into our environment from wildlife including birds, mammals, and reptiles. They also like an undisturbed environment. Start by disturbing their environment. Keep your lawn mowed, watered, and fertilized on a regular basis. In other words, maintain your lawn. The next step is trying to control the wildlife in the yard. This means taking down the bird feeder for a month or two.

Applying sulfur to the yard is the most common all-natural method for chigger control. Sulfur is a repellant, not a killer and because chiggers live in clusters, sulfur must be applied heavily. Light applications just spread out the problem. Powder sulfur is more effective than the granulated but does not last as long and is a mess to apply. Putting powder sulfur in a sock and dusting yourself is another method. You need to apply the sulfur everywhere you don’t want to get bit! This same methodology applies to the lawn. The rule of thumb is a 50-pound bag of granulated sulfur should cover 2,500 square feet and lasts about three weeks depending on the weather. A 50-pound bag of powder will cover about one acre and last until it gets wet.

There is another all-natural product called Yardsafe from the Cedarcide folks. This high concentration cedar oil product is in a ready-to-use quart that will cover about 2,000 square feet for the initial application. Repeat application in 7 to 10 days. This will kill the existing chiggers and will keep them out for several weeks depending on the weather.

There are also quite a few choices on the chemical side in both liquid and granulated. A good rule of thumb is to pick products with an active ingredient that ends with the suffix, “thrin”. Some of the most common are bifenthrin, cyfluthrin, and permethrin. My favorite product, lambda-cyhalothrin, is the active ingredient in Cyonara. This quart will cover about 8,000 square feet.

Prepare yourself if you venture into woods and pastures during chigger season. The aforementioned sulfur sock, Chigg Away, Tick Shield, and Cedarcide’s Original work very well. As always please read and follow all label directions.