Beelzebugs

The Minnesota bug season is here in full force!  Suddenly some of the worst offenders of all - those big black "circle flies" - are here.   If ever there was a bug sent by Satan, those circle flies fit the bill.   They never leave you alone.  Round and round they fly in your face, ears, hair, and follow you everywhere.  Nothing deters them either.   You can douse yourself in DEET and that might work for a few New York seconds.  Oh ya, I've heard about that "Dawn dish soap, vanilla, vinegar" thing - flies eat that up like candy.   They thrive on that!   Add to this pest, the ticks, gnats, deer flies, mosquitoes - all of which are out in full force now.   The only good thing is that ticks don't like hot temps, so this week it's supposed to get in the upper 80's and that will help.
       We also have those tent caterpillars, fuzzy green worms that are eating my apple trees, raspberries and cabbages.    A person is supposed to destroy the tent full of worms, but I can't find their tent.   I think they come from someplace else.   And with a million trees around here, how could I even begin to search??  According to the internet, a person is supposed to "put a bucket of water next to the tree, and the worms will be attracted to it and drown".  Ya, right!  That doesn't work at all.  The only things attracted to the buckets of water are my farm cats, trying to catch the occasional bug that does fly in there (no worms, though).   I even have some tiny little bug that is eating holes in my turnips!  Nothing else, just the turnips.   We also have potato bugs arriving daily.   We can't use pesticides because of our bees here at Honey B Farm, so I'm left wondering what to do.
     How does that famous Minnesota phrase go?  "We live here for the quality of life".  That person obviously never spent much time outdoors.  Must have been a person who just sits on the screened-in back porch, up north at the lake cabin, dreaming about the good life while sipping coffee...................