By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Knight Ridder Newspapers
That one missing or defective light bulb doesn’t have to dim your holiday display.
NOMA/Inliten’s new Staylit miniature lights have a microchip in every socket that keeps the power flowing and the lights operating when one of the bulbs is loose, broken or missing. The lights are 25 percent brighter than a regular light string, the company says.
Staylit lights are available in indoor and outdoor strings, icicle lights and pre-lighted artificial trees.
The lights are available at stores including Donzell’s, Target, Wal-Mart, True Value Hardware and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Light strings retail for less than $10, and pre-lighted trees sell for $100 and up.
Q. I have pantry moths, even though I’ve cleaned all my cupboards, freeze all susceptible foods for three days, store those foods in sealed containers and have traps in every room. What do I do?
A. Barb Bloetscher, an entomologist with Ohio State University’s Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic, said pantry moths can infest nonfood items such as dried flower arrangements, so she recommended you start by determining exactly what room is harboring them.
Close the doors to all the rooms in your house, if possible, and leave a light on in each room. The moths will fly to the light and die, she said, so by the next day you should know which room or rooms are infested.
Next comes the laborious task of going through everything in the room item by item to find the source of the infestation and rid the house of it.
A good pest-control operator can help, Bloetscher said, but make sure to educate yourself first so you can ask pointed questions that will tell you whether the operator’s plan is effective. (A good resource is Ohio State’s fact sheets at http://ohioline.osu.edu.)
