Crabgrass. If you have a lawn or garden, chances are you’re familiar with it. You may even have figured out by now that it’s among the most tenacious of weeds. It quickly claims any open spaces in your lawn (even small ones), and if left unchecked, crabgrass can outcompete desirable turf grass for resources, spreading into its personal space as it dies. And because crabgrass is an annual plant, meaning it dies every year after the first frost, large patches of crabgrass in your yard can turn into large patches of nothing the following spring. So of course you want to get rid of crabgrass, but once it’s established itself, it’s tricky to eliminate. In fact, getting rid of crabgrass is largely a matter of preventing it in the first place. And even if it’s too late for your lawn this year, it’s never too early to start preparing for next year’s crabgrass invasion. My latest article is a great place to begin.

It’s been a while since I’ve contributed to the site. I’ve been a bit of a hiatus, working on a new contributor inclusion system and a new business model. But that’s neither here nor there. You’re here to figure out how to get rid of flea beetles. It’s not easy, my friend. Flea beetles are one of the harder garden pests to control because of the variety, resilience, and mobility of these tiny beetles. In this particular article, I’ve attempted to cover the basics of non-toxic, organic flea beetle control. It’s important to keep in mind that the techniques detailed here aren’t just applicable to a flea beetle infestation. Most of these pest control strategies are what we call cultural controls. They’ve been used for a very long time to promote healthy gardens. In other words, much of the information in this article is common knowledge–things that a green thumb probably knows already.

If you’ve got any comments or suggestions, I would post them in the Gardening Forum.

I never gave slugs much thought until I was 15 and my dad moved from Minnesota to Oregon, where slugs are practically part of the culture. They’re hard to ignore, anyway, since they’re roughly the size of chipmunks and often leopard-spotted and/or bright yellow. But even in Minnesota, where slugs are usually only an inch or two long and boring brown or gray, the gooey little creatures cause all kinds of discomfort to gardeners who have to contend with their destructive eating habits. If you grow anything, whether it’s hostas or tomatoes, you’re probably interested in getting rid of slugs. And, lucky for you, there are lots of ways to do it. My latest article goes over several tried-and-true ways to get rid of slugs, and should help get you through the upcoming growing season.

If there is such a thing as an ugly tree, I’m quite certain that every opossum in the world has climbed it to the very top with the intent of throwing itself off the highest limb in order to hit every branch on the way down. It’s just the only explanation. And unfortunately, it has done them no good at all. In fact, their creepy looks are one of the prime reasons for people wanting to know how to get rid of possums. That and the fact that they have a tendency to eat things they aren’t supposed to and to get into places where they don’t belong. So even though they can be beneficial to gardeners in that they eat bugs, slugs and other things that might otherwise eat your garden, I can understand why someone might want to Get Rid of Opossum. And from that understanding comes this article.

I think my fear of ghosts took hold when I was a kid and spent a lot of nights at my grandparents’ Civil War-era farmhouse. There’s just nothing like an old house with a dank cellar, a seldom-used second story, picture-window views of dark fields, and a few volumes of ghost stories on the bookshelves to foster a fear of the unknown. It also didn’t help that my aunt told me the place was haunted.

In the end I never actually experienced anything convincingly ghost-like there or anywhere else, so I’ve been able to mostly convince myself that ghosts aren’t real. I hope I’m right, but if you think your house is haunted, I’ll probably believe you in spite of myself. I’ll also offer you tips for getting rid of a ghost. Because I know all about it, now that I’ve combed through several books and websites by paranormal researchers, looking for the best ways to get rid of a ghost. I put the most common suggestions in my latest article: check it out.

Like Amber’s recent article on Asian Beetles, this article is a little sequel to the ever popular “How to Get Rid of Beetles” article. Japanese Beetles are quickly spreading across the United States, from East to West, destroying gardens, trees, shrubs, hedges, and just about anything else that’s green. On top of the insatiable appetite of the adult Japanese Beetle, the Japanese Beetle grub is also a concern for homeowners with large lawns and people who have recently put down turf. The Japanese Beetle grub loves to eat the chewy, young roots of lawn grasses and turf. It’s like an all you can eat sushi bar down there when the grass is lush and conditions are right, turning your once beautiful lawn into a patchwork of dead and dying grasses.

Want to know how to get rid of Japanese Beetles? Well, you’ve come to the right place my friend.

An introduced species is rarely an entirely good thing, even if its introduction was intentional. When you take an animal or plant out of the habitat it evolved in and put it somewhere else, bad things usually happen, often to other species that live in the new habitat. Take, for example, Asian lady beetles, which were introduced intentionally in America to control aphids and other garden pests. Mostly they do their job, each one spending the summer snacking on thousands of aphids that would otherwise conspire to destroy crops. And then October comes, the weather cools down, and suddenly Asian beetles cluster en masse on and in our houses, looking for a warm place to spend the winter. This is one of those bad things introduced species do to other species around them. They annoy us. So if you have getting rid of Asian beetles on your mind, I understand. I also want to help; my new article, How to Get Rid of Asian Beetles, is full of tips for keeping these beneficial but pesky insects out of your personal space.

-The Editor Monkeys

I love food. All kinds of food. Before I found out I have borderline high cholesterol, I rarely met a hot dog, cheese, ice cream, or pot roast I didn’t like. One of my favorite snacks as a kid was a slice of bread with butter on it. Yum. Butter. But now–thanks a lot, Dad, for the bad genes–I know my body makes more than enough cholesterol on its own, and any I add via my diet just wants to party on my arterial walls. Bad stuff. So for the past few years, I’ve been learning a lot about how to get rid of cholesterol. Now I’m passing my wisdom on to you. My latest article, on getting rid of cholesterol, covers everything from everyday lifestyle and dietary changes you can make to lower your cholesterol, to drugs you can ask your doctor about, to natural compounds that support your body’s efforts to keep cholesterol levels acceptable. Take a look.