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It is heart-breaking for dog lovers who care about their pets to watch them scratching incessantly. Itchy skin can become such an annoyance that a dog will pull all its hair out of a patch and then still scratch its skin red raw. If this happens to your dog, then you know that something is radically wrong.

It could be a matter of canine dry skin, but this is quite unlikely, if your dog is on a healthy diet. No, nine times out of ten, it has to do with an infestation of fleas or, less commonly, ticks. Therefore if you see that your dog is constantly scratching a spot, check it. That spot will usually be on the dog’s back just in front of its tail – one of the favourite places for fleas to congregate.

So, the first thing to do is inspect for fleas and comb most of them out. This can best be done in the garden or you may get an infestation in your house as well, although if your dog has fleas this severely, then your house is almost certainly already infested.

Once you are sure that the itchy skin issue has to do with fleas, you can get on and take care of your dog. Go to your vet’s or your pet store (which is probably cheaper) and get an insecticidal shampoo and flea powder for your dog and a permethrin based insecticide for your house. If they have a soothing canine skin cream, a small tube of that will help too.

Leave the dog in the garden and get out the vacuum cleaner. Open the bag and give it a good squirt of permethrin or flea powder and zip it up. Vacuum clean your house from top to bottom in order to pick up fleas and any loose eggs.

Do not overlook the furniture and the curtains. When you have finished, spray the curtains, furniture and carpets with permethrin and put your own bedding on a boil wash.

Then take your dogs basket and blanket outside and close the door. Do not go back in for an hour at least. In the meantime, shake out the dog’s basket and blanket and sprinkle it with flea powder. Now you can turn your attention to your dog.

Give him a systematic bath in the insecticidal shampoo following the directions on the box. When he is dry, apply some skin cream or olive oil on to his red bald spot. It is best not to use human skin cream because it contains chemicals and your dog will lick it off, unless you put a ruff around its neck.

You might have to do all this twice in order to kill the new hatchlings, but some insecticides will kill the eggs as well. Once you have got your dog back to normal, groom and bathe him more often in the future and be watchful for fleas.

Another persistent source of annoyance to dogs is mosquitoes. Mosquitoes usually bite dogs on the snout and the undercarriage and they suffer the same problems from bites as we do, except they do not moan about it.

Do not apply DEET or any chemical because the dog will lick it off and it is not to be taken internally. Instead, try a lemon based natural fragrance as mosquitoes detest the smell of citrus. Put a few dabs here and there every hour or two when the dog is outside after dark.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few topics, but is currently concerned with indoor mosquito repellent. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Repellent For Dogs.

There are times when it just seems that there are more insects than previously. Perhaps it is the warmer winters and wetter summers helping them breed more easily, or possibly it is because fewer people are using pesticides in their gardens. It is quite understandable that a lot of people do not want to use chemicals on their gardens, but not using anything at all results in a growth in the insect population.

Over the last fifty or so years, people have become more and more used to using chemical insecticides to kill household and garden insect pests because they are a faster and more certain killer. So what do you do if you want to control the number of garden insect pests, but do not want to use chemicals?

Well, you would have to go back to using natural insect pest killers, although most households have forgotten what their great-grandparents used to use to kill insects. The following is a list of a few of the natural ways of killing insect pests. However, not all techniques or plants will be available in all countries.

Stinging nettles: if you cut down a bunch of stinging nettles and immerse them in water for a week or more, chemicals will leach out of the vegetation into the water. Strain the water off and spray it over your plants. It will kill or discourage most garden insects. You can also use it as a plant food, but you will have to be careful how strong it is.

Rotenone: is a natural insecticidal. It is made from the roots of the derris plant. It kills by damaging the stomachs of insects. However, it is rather slow-acting and has to be reapplied often in order to get the maximum effect.

Washing Up Water: soapy water of any kind will kill aphids or greenfly amongst other garden insect pests. This is a very easy control to administer. Just strain your soapy water into a spray gun (like an empty window spray gun) and squirt your aphids.

Corn meal: you can dust this around plants or skirting boards to kill insects. If a tomato hornworm or a cockroach eats some, the cornmeal will puff up in the insect’s stomach with the bodily fluids in there and the insect will eventually explode.

Pyrethrum: will paralyze an insect, but it will also wear off, so it is often mixed with a poison to finish the insect off. Otherwise, you can pick them up.

A mixture of cow’s milk, flour and water can be employed as a natural insecticide, funnily enough. It is very good at killing the eggs of insects. It also destroys insects themselves by blocking their breathing holes. In other words, they asphyxiate.

Neem is a very common tree in India and has medicinal as well as insecticidal uses. This natural insecticide repels insects by means of an active ingredient that mimics an insect hormone. It makes it hard, if not impossible, to digest food and it stops their cycle of reproduction. It works most effectively of all on insects that primarily eat leaves.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on quite a few subjects, but is currently involved with indoor mosquito repellent. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Repellent For Dogs.

We are inclined to think of dogs as being tough; animals that can take care of themselves; animals that are far more in contact with nature than we humans are and we kind of admire them for it, in a way. However, the truth is that dogs come under many of the stresses that we do including pollution and junk food, even though they do not have to do the nine-to-five or sit in traffic jams, which are of our own making anyway.

Many of the stresses that dogs undergo are not of their own making, they are our fault too. These stresses often out themselves in much the same way as they do with us in neuroses, anti-social behaviour and skin problems amongst other ways. In this piece, I want to talk about some of the most common sorts of canine skin irritation, not all of which can be attributed to human activity.

The foremost cause of bad skin in dogs is fleas in the town and fleas and ticks in the countryside. The cause of the irritation is these parasites’ spittle. A dog’s immune system can handle a few fleas, but the trouble arises when he is infested. Brief infestation can happen fairly easily, but usually it is a sign of neglect. If a dog was groomed every week, the problem would not get out of control.

Often a neglected dog will look mangy because he has pulled his fur out and damaged his skin with continuous scratching, try to purge himself of his tormentors. If the dog had remained in a pack like it was born to tens of thousands of years ago, it would be groomed every day by its fellows. A domestic dog relies on its owner to do this for him. You could liken it to a child crawling with bedbugs waiting for its parents to do something about it.

You can treat it and prevent it happening by bathing your dog in insecticidal shampoo as indicated on the label and dusting him and his box with flea powder on a regular basis, say, in conjunction with his weekly grooming.

A similar looking condition is mange. Mange is caused by tiny parasitic mites burrowing under your dog’s skin. Again, your dog can deal with a few mites, but an infestation is bad. It can also be contracted by humans, but our bodies usually clear the problem up. However, your dog will be driven to distraction by an infestation of mites.

If you cannot find scores of fleas on your dog, it is probably mange, also known as scabies. You should be able to catch this early if you see red, perhaps bleeding patches of skin. Your vet or pet shop can sell you something to cure it fairly quickly.

Mosquitoes can be as much, if not more of a bother to dogs than they are to us. Mosquitoes harass dogs on the snout and genitals, but you cannot put DEET or other lotions for humans for the reason that they will lick the chemical off causing stomach problems. You can apply lemon juice or oil scented with grated lemon rind and lemon juice, because mosquitoes detest lemon smells.

If your dog’s skin problem does not fit into any of these categories, then he is probably suffering from an allergy or pollution of some sort and you will have to take him to a vet.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with indoor mosquito repellent. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Repellent For Dogs.

I live in NYC, we get below freezing temperatures and snow.

I have about $500 to spend. It needs to hold kids out door toys, garden equipment and bikes. Would a garden shed that comes with a base be any good? Any other ideas?

The Hayward AquaBug is easily one of the highest selling above ground pool vacuums. It is an automatic pool cleaner designed for above ground pools with vinyl liners. It works just as well on either flat bottoms and dished bottoms.

Function

In the same way as with Hayward’s other automatic pool cleaners, such as Diver Dave and Wanda The Whale, the AquaBug is self-propelled. It, in the same way as the others, uses a technology patented by Hayward called SmartDrive, which programs the cleaner to clean faster and more efficiently than a great deal of other bottom-roving cleaners, which move around in a random fashion.

Suction

The vacuum mechanism of the AquaBug is powerful. It sucks up everything from sand and microscopic particles to fallen leaves. If you will be using it to suck up leaves, you may want to invest in a leaf catcher, which will prevent your filter from getting clogged. It’s an inexpensive investment which will keep you from spending time and energy unclogging your filter, or, worse, having to repair it, which could cost a lot.

Design

Similar to Hayward’s other cleaners Wanda the Whale and Diver Dave, the AquaBug comes in a unique color and pattern, which distinguishes it from other automatic above ground pool vacuums. Kids love the fun design, which resembles a large red insect – though not a scary insect, but a friendly one. But don’t be fooled by its fun exterior; the AquaBug is among the best automatic cleaners money can buy.

Equipment

The Hayward AquaBug works with a standard above ground pool filtration system, so it is not necessary to buy an additional booster pump. This is a plus because it saves energy, and therefore, of course, saves you money on electricity bills.

Safety

One of the most important things about the AquaBug, as well as with most automatic above ground pool vacuums, is that it keeps the pool clean with its powerful suction ability instead of with the use of caustic chemical cleansers. Too many chemicals in the water can lead to poor health effects. This is especially important if children will be swimming in the pool, since the immune systems of children are not as strong as are immunes systems of adults.

To read more about this hayward pool vacuum, visit the main website for above ground pool vacuum, where you can find reviews, comparisons, and sales.

Hello, I live in Maine and the winters are so dreary here. I was wondering if there were any plants I could grow in pots that will brighten up a dreary winter? Also, what bulbs, plants or seeds can I plant that will come up next spring?? Thank you, from someone not looking forward to the snow!

Check out this video about garden ideas:

Amy Bigej, Al’s Garden Center 3rd Generation, discusses ideas for outdoor room makeovers, and planting containers on the KOIN 6 Garden Time show hosted by Judy Alleruzzo. Locally owned since 1948, Al’s Garden Center provides an extensive selection of plants, home decor, garden accessories and outdoor funiture at our three locations in Sherwood, Woodburn, and our nursery store in Gresham, OR, www.Als-gardencenter.com.

Once you have finished making your patio, your deck or your lawn, you will unquestionably start thinking about how you can enjoy more time out of doors. Therefore, you will need some garden furniture. Many shops stock garden furniture. You can try home improvement centres, large department stores and garden centres. There are also businesses on line that will deliver. The hard job is picking your garden furniture.

There is a very broad choice of designs of garden furniture – a design to suit every person and complement every garden. So, before hurrying down to the garden centre, it is worth considering for a while what you would like to accomplish with your open-air seating area. Do you require a theme? Do you want to have company or dine there? Or do you just want to sit quietly, enjoy your garden and read a book?

Indeed, the answer may well be a combination of all those variables. If you just want to sit there with a drink and a book, you may be satisfied to just buy a couple of chairs and a small table, but if you want to have guests or eat family meals outside, you may prefer a more substantial table. A large oak table would be quite expensive, but it would look magnificent and last for a decade or more.

If you decide on a table, you will have to have chairs to go with it, but do you want loungers as well? They could be of plastic and stored in the shed until required.

You will likely have to have some type of shade. This can be provided by folding, even removable umbrellas or by overhanging trees or shrubs. Wisteria or clematis can do the job too and cost you next to nothing.

Do you anticipate cooking in this area? If you do, what and how? Do you fancy a barbecue pit or a real hob and oven? A lot of people in areas where the climate permits are doing a lot of cooking outdoors in a carbon copy of an indoor kitchen, but without all the walls.. If you plan the outdoor kitchen well, you will be able to use it in the rain too. I find it great not to have kitchen smells in the house and cooking outside is a good experience as well.

If it gets nippy in the evenings then you can think about getting some patio heaters. They are not dear to buy or to run and one standard patio heater can keep quite a group of people warm. (By the word ‘standard’ here, I mean upright, like a lamp post).

Lighting is the last major point on the list when choosing garden furniture. There are actually two sorts of garden lighting to mull over: lighting to see by and lighting to lure insects away. Again, you could use standard lamps to light up your patio. They cast their light far enough so that you can still look at your garden after dusk or you could have individual wall light on dimmers.

The one light I would categorically have is a mosquito lantern. Hang this away from where you sit, because they do attract insects to them which they then electrocute with a gratifying zap.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on a number of subjects, but is at present involved with visual comfort lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.

Check out this video about garden centers:

Learn more! – bit.ly About the Bull’s Power Q on our website! This video is provided by Armstrong Garden Centers. Features: Angus stainless steel 4-burner grill, 75000 BTU Stainless steel refrigerator Stainless steel double doors Side burner Umbrella hole Tuscan Stucco base,…