Subscription Information
Hi everyone. Check out this issue's video. "Riverdance (Chimp Version) - Evolution of Dance" If you have broadband it should load fast. If you have dialup it may take some time. Enjoy.

Infobreaks Newsletter is an option newsletter available by subscription only. All subscribers must double opt-in. Upon subscribing you will be sent an email to confirm your subscription. All subscription requests are kept on file. We respect your privacy and subscribers' information and addresses are Not shared with anyone. If you would like to be removed from or join this mailing list, please see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.

This publication is NEVER sent unsolicited. You are receiving this because you subscribed to our newsletter.

Brown Recluse Spider "Tips to Avoid Them and Keep That Spider Outside"
By Angela Martinez
Seeing spiders in your home is an unsettling thing. It's not something you dwell on until you pick up a shirt off the floor to put in the laundry and a big ugly spider jumps down to the floor and runs away. The natural response is to scream and jump away. Every hair on your body stands on its ends. Suddenly you see every teeny tiny creature that you might not have noticed before and you feel like they are crawling all over your body. It can take days to get over an incident like that. You find yourself shaking out your pants before you put them on and looking in every box before you stick your hand in it. When really, these should probably be regular practices.

Many spider are harmless, but on of the most dangerous is the brown recluse spider. They are called the brown recluse, because they like to hide out during the day. Hence the name recluse.

They generally occupy dark and undisturbed areas. They can be found indoors or outdoors. Indoors they are commonly found in attics, basements, crawl spaces, cellars, closets, and heater vents. They will find a storage box, shoe, clothing, folded linens, or even your sheets to hide. Outdoors they like to live under logs, loose stones and stacks of lumber. They are not aggressive spiders by nature. Some common ways people have been bitten is by rolling over one in your bed while sleeping, touching one accidentally while cleaning out your storage area or putting on an old pair of shoes that a brown recluse spider has made a home in.

Preventing Spider Bites
There are steps to avoid getting a bite from a brown recluse spider.

1. Shake out clothing and shoes before getting dressed.

2. Inspect bedding and towels before use.

3. Wear gloves when picking up firewood, lumber, and rocks, but be sure to check the gloves for spiders first.

4. Bed skirts are nice looking, but they are great for spiders to crawl up.

5. Move the bed away from the wall slightly.

6. Storage under the bed are handy, but they make a great dark place for brown recluse spiders to live.

7. Be careful when picking up cardboard boxes. Recluse spiders like to hide under the folded cardboard flaps.

Keep Spiders Out
The best way to avoid brown recluse spider bites is to keep them outside and away from your house.

1. Windows and doors must be tight-fitting. Door sweeps are a must.

2. Use seal or caulk cracks that the spider can use to get into your house.

3. Your lights outside can attract bugs and spiders like to eat bugs. So the best kind of light bulbs are yellow or sodium vapor light bulbs. They attract less bugs.

4. Seal off the edges of your cardboard boxes to keep the spider out or use plastic bags that can seal to store things in your garage, basement and attic.

5. Get rid of trash, old boxes, old clothing, wood piles, rock piles, and other things you don't want.

6. Clean your closets out. Throw away and organize them. Move your wood away from the side of the house. Stack it as far away as you can.

7. Brown recluse prefer to eat dead insects, so clean them up as soon as you notice them.

This is the best defense with the brown recluse spider. You have the knowledge and know how, now you just have to put these practices into place. Whether you have brown recluse or not, this will help with all spiders and you might just have an organized house as a bonus. So put you gloves on and get to work!

She is a mother of 5 children, ranging from 15 mo. up to 18 yrs. She is the author of a variety of articles about family life and all it's craziness. She has a whole website about spider safety, if you would like more information, visit: http://spiderfrenzie.blogspot.com http://abusymother5.blogspot.com

Why Should Home Owners Have Their Homes Professionally Inspected For Termites?
By: Rowan Gregson
Termites are very difficult to detect because of the fact they are subterranean in nature. This means that they nest and forage underground accessing their feeding sites from the soil. As a home owner, trying to carry out an inspection yourself can be a very expensive move. The peace of mind that can be gained by having an expert thoroughly inspect your home from top to bottom will be worth the small service fee that you will be charged. Even experienced pest controllers can have difficulty in detecting termites as termite control and inspection is a specialty within the industry, given this a home owner can find the task daunting without specialist training.

Subterranean termites live and work underground, rarely coming out into our atmosphere and occasionally attacking structures that are important to us like houses or other timber buildings. The fact that these insects spend most of their time underground is why it is difficult to detect them above the ground. Many species of termite can easily travel 50 metres and sometimes will travel up to 100 metres underground to reach their ultimate target, a food or moisture source.

Most termite species travel in mud shelter tubes to gain access to objects above ground. These shelter tubes are made of a mixture of faeces and soil from the immediate vicinity. This also aids the termites in disguising the shelter tubes as they are a very similar colour to the local soil. Shelter tubes can be found built up brick walls, steel posts, trees or in fact any surface that they need to cross in their efforts to reach their food source.

Termites do not always need to build shelter tubes as they can successfully travel through landscaping and other timbers or tree roots. Termites can also create their own shelter tubes easily by using the small gap between timbers e.g. sleepers or between brickwork where a gap exists e.g. behind an engaged pier. Some species of termite can nest within the trunk of a tree, it is easy for these termites to excavate the centre of the roots of the tree and follow them for a long distance popping up undetected many metres from where they started.

Many homes are built with inherent flaws in their construction. These flaws can allow for undetectable access for termites. Unless a home owner has experience with many building types, then it is almost impossible to understand where to inspect for them. Cracks in concrete slabs, timber pegs through concrete slabs, high soil levels around the perimeter of buildings and many other conditions add to these difficulties.

Familiarity with a building, can lead to a home owner becoming blaze. This can happen with the best of termite inspectors when sent to the same property regularly it surely can happen with a home owner. Home owners tend to believe that they have a greater knowledge of their castle than anyone else possibly can and therefore they are better to inspect it for termites. Having to be inquisitive about a building that one has never seen before, often turns up all sorts of problems previously undetected by the home owner.

If you must inspect your own home for termites, please do so in conjunction with a professional, and ensure that you carry out as much research as possible before doing so. www.pestec.com.au

Other Related Links
Helpful spiders prey upon bugs we call pests

State Attempts to Revive the Horny Toad

Cockroaches Hitch Ride Into Us With Troops

Health Dept. closes West Loop Bar Louie

Joke Center
"Women's Favorite E-mail of the Year! "

A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed home.

He wanted her to see what he went through so he prayed:

'Dear Lord:
I go to work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home.

I want her to know what I go through..

So, please allow her body to switch with mine for a day.

Amen!'

God, in his infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish.

The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as a woman.

He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate, Awakened the kids, Set out their school clothes, Fed them breakfast, Packed their lunches, Drove them to school, Came home and picked up the dry cleaning, Took it to the cleaners And stopped at the bank to make a deposit, Went grocery shopping, Then drove home to put away the groceries, Paid the bills and balanced the check book.

He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog.

Then, it was already 01P.M.

And he hurried to make the beds, Do the laundry, vacuum, Dust, And sweep and mop the kitchen floor.

Ran to the school to pick up the kids and got into an argument with them on the way home.

Set out milk and cookies and got the kids organized to do their homework.

Then, set up the ironing board and watched TV while he did the ironing.

At 4:30 he began peeling potatoes and washing vegetables for salad, breaded the pork chops and snapped fresh beans for supper.

After supper,

He cleaned the kitchen, Ran the dishwasher, Folded laundry, Bathed the kids, And put them to bed.

At 09 P..M .

He was exhausted and, though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without complaint.

The next morning, he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said: - 'Lord, I don't know what I was thinking.

I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day.

Please, oh! Oh! Please, let us trade back.

Amen!'

The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, replied:

'My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were.

You'll just have to wait nine months, though.

You got pregnant last night.'

This Issue's Video