FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF NOV. 2, 1998:
When should I mulch my garden for winter and what should I mulch it with?
You can mulch or remulch trees and shrubs any time during the fall, says University of Idaho extension horticulturist Michael Colt. Spread bark mulch or compost 2-4 inches deep, taking care not to mound it against the crowns of the plants. If you’d like, leave the mulch in place even after spring arrives.
For non-woody or herbaceous perennials, however, you’ll want to wait until the ground freezes, then mulch the plant beds with evergreen boughs, brush or straw. Unless the perennials provide winter interest in the landscape, cut them down near the ground after most of the foliage has been killed by frost. The cover of boughs, brush or straw will retain snow and prevent the harmful freezing and thawing cycles that can heave plants out of the ground. Unprotected, some perennials will die from a combination of drying winds and low temperatures.
I’ve heard that most of the spiders that we see inside are beneficial and feed on other insects. That’s the good news; what’s the bad news?
The bad news is that we have two spiders in Idaho whose benefits don’t outweigh their risks: the black widow and the hobo--or aggressive house--spider. (No brown recluse spiders have ever been positively identified in the state).
The bite of the shiny, half-inch long female black widow–with the characteristic red hourglass on the bottom of her abdomen--can leave you with abdominal and leg cramps, nausea, headache, fever and struggling for breath. "You may wish you were dead," says University of Idaho extension entomologist Bob Stoltz, " but the bite is not normally very deadly–except perhaps to a small child." Immature, black widow females also bite; instead of a red hourglass, they’re more likely to have red or white spots.
The hobo spider--grayish-brown, long-legged and slighter larger than a quarter–doesn’t actually aggress against humans, but its spirited defense can make the distinction moot. According to Stoltz, it’s most likely to bite when you accidentally gather it up with bedding or clothing or when you stick your bare hand into the funnel-shaped webs it builds outside. The hobo spider’s oozing, slow-healing wounds can expand to two-inches across and be accompanied by swelling, headaches, muscle weakness and vomiting. Unlike the black widow, the hobo spider has such ordinary, plain Jane looks that only experts can tell it apart from the many harmless spiders it resembles.
How will my outdoor animals’ feed and water requirements change for the winter?
Like us, livestock and poultry are homeothermic, explains University of Idaho extension educator Kathy Roy: they maintain a relatively constant body temperature. During the winter, they lose more body heat than they produce, prompting their metabolism to increase in an effort to generate heat. To fuel that increased metabolism, livestock need more food.
Roy says when it’s below freezing, you’ll want to feed your animals what their appetites demand–and that added food should be forages such as alfalfa, grass hay and silage. Forages create more internal heat as the animal digests them than do grains and protein feeds.
Livestock’s water needs, conversely, actually drop in the winter because they don’t lose much moisture from perspiration, Roy says. Still, to maintain their body functions, they’ll need clean, fresh water at least several times weekly.
How cold should my refrigerator be?
Food safety guidelines recommend 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, says Sandy McCurdy, University of Idaho extension food safety coordinator. According to McCurdy, when Audits International recently conducted non-random observations of U.S. households, it found that 63 percent set their refrigerator temperatures too high. Temperatures of 42 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit permit bacterial growth and are too warm for safe food storage, McCurdy says.