Why was Sarah late picking me up yesterday?

Because she was busy vaccuuming her tree.

Why, yes, I’m serious. It’s Sarah’s eco-friendly solution to the tent caterpillar problem in her yard. She’s hesitant to use pesticides for many reasons: Four children, two Dachsunds, and, well, pesticides are poison. No two ways about it. She had hoped the freeze last week would kill the caterpillars, but nope, they were wiggling around as soon as the sun hit them the next day.

So she had a eureka moment with her Shop-Vac, and tried it. You can follow the story here, complete with pictures of what the caterpillars looked like after being sucked up into the Shop-Vac. (Oh, go, the picture isn’t nearly as gross as she described it to me. And don’t forget to put your mouse over the picture for Sarah’s note.)