Dealing with pests, including human ones, in suburban Phoenix from 1993 to today


No matter where you live on planet earth, there will be pests. Mine is the attitude of a gardener, and I try not to let myself get too upset with pests. Over the years I've learned different techniques to keep them as far away from me as possible, but I know that there's really no such thing as "extermination" of the pests that plague my neighborhood, including human ones.

Here in my suburban neighborhood there really aren't too many pests. I discovered Amdro to control the stinging red ants, and I've never seen a scorpion here in over twenty years. I have block walls, so rabbits can't get into my garden and destroy my plants, but I know that in different areas of the valley, those pests are a consideration. As far as human pests, I haven't seen much either. Once many, many, years ago, while I was talking to a neighbor of mine, who had recently been bloodied up by getting in a fight with the people who were in a house nearby selling drugs, it occurred to me that I should take the same attitude towards that type of pest, and determined what to do. I'm all for the idea of "live and let live", but once I've determined that something is a pest, I do my research, and see what I can do. It was a fascinating process, and in a few months the pests were gone. Of course, like the stinging red ants, I know that I've only moved them away from my neighborhood, because that's the nature of pests. They find somewhere else to do their stuff, which to them in perfectly natural.

Pest control is part of life. I don't expect to live in a world without pests, because that would be unrealistic, but around my neighborhood I'll see what I can do to get them to go away.

Image at the top of this post: In my backyard in 1994.
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