Blog

  • Member Summer Evening, Atlanta Botanical Garden

    It was a pleasure to spend time at the Atlanta Botanical Garden at the Member Summer Evening talking about our buckets and pollinators. As I said many times today, there is always an opportunity to reduce mosquitoes; buckets still work at this point in the season. It takes about two weeks to intervene in the populations. And the buckets can be saved and reused and (ideally) reinstalled in February or March of next years, as they are most effective if you can get them into your yard before the season starts.

    It is always gratifying to help people understand the effects of mosquito sprays on pollinators. We will keep spreading that word. We were set up with folks/groups representing native plants (Halley from Garden*Hood and Tony from the Georgia Native Plant Society, N GA chapter). We all have shared and collaborative missions, in many ways. Thanks, all, for the work! And for the invitation, Claudia McDavid: Decatur resident, Beecatur Board Member, B Buckets client, and Membership Manager, Atlanta Botanical Garden.

    new buckets with stickers, made especially for the Member Summer Evening

  • Rain Barrels and Emerging Mosquitoes

    During a recent consultation with Ellen, whose family has just moved to Decatur, we discovered that the rain barrel at their new house was not screened; the fish that had been in it point doing mosquito control had not been keeping up with the emerging populations, likely for several months. There were numerous larvae and pupae in the barrel, which now has a dunk in it and multiple buckets in the yard to start helping to reduce the local populations.

    Dunks and Bits (the latter faster acting but less potent, needing replacement more often, in my experience and understanding) are helpful for any standing water in your yard, such as still ponds and bird baths. Make sure to empty and dry any accumulating water, as from frequent thunderstorms; you have about a week to intervene in the development of mosquito eggs/larvae/pupae. Remember that mosquitoes only need about a tablespoon of water for egg development!

    Thanks, Ellen, for trying this non-toxic method. We’ll check back and report on the progress. Welcome to Decatur!

  • So Many Buckets

    Decatur! We have been placing so many buckets in yards!

    Intown Ace Hardware on Scott Blvd is continuing to stock supplies for mosquito buckets, including black buckets and snap-on hydroponic lids and dunks (notice our instructions on the bottom shelf of the endcap). We are so grateful for the ways they are collaborating with us to spread the buckets. The above pictures are from June 20, when Andy Jones had brought in all the buckets and lids in his warehouses to make sure that Ace had them in stock. Thanks, Andy, for the efforts and the photographs!

    When I was at Ace yesterday, the same shelves looked like this ^^^. They were almost down to single digits (that is a stack of 10 from my special order being returned to stock so that they would be available for those who want to DIY). Don’t worry – I am filling all current orders AND Ace got more today.

    Patrick even told me that he drives around Decatur and sees black buckets and knows exactly where they came from! Thanks, everyone. This is a wonderful challenge, exactly what we hoped for!

  • Record Deliveries

    This weekend has set a record for bucket orders & deliveries. We made & delivered 53 buckets to 10 families. They are now in Capitol View, Clarkston, Decatur/North Decatur, Druid Hills/North Druid Hills, East Lake, Kirkwood, Lake Clare, Medlock, Peachtree Hills, Tucker, and more. Thanks, Decatur/Atlanta! 

  • Pollinator Week Annual Festival

    We were pleased to join the annual festival in downtown Decatur, organized and hosted by Bee City USA – Decatur and thrilled to have a booth in the center of the space with the Peter and Angie/Beecatur. Thank you, Beecatur, for all you do to support, educate, and advocate!

    We sold a record number of Bee-autiful Buckets, even sending one to San Antonio, TX, as well as stickers, repellents, and incense, which we had not offered before.

    This bucket was particularly well chosen, quite a match for a thistle tatoo.

    I was particularly glad to meet Laura @nuture.native.nature, who posted a video of me explaining the bucket method and had a terrific approach to using the stickers for a DIY Bucket (currently only available at festivals).

    Here are some stills of her videos:

  • Happy Pollinator Week!

    It is Pollinator Week, and we’re busy getting ready for the annual festival organized by Peter Helfrich and Beecatur. My social media is blowing up with all sorts of information and advocacy about how we can all support pollinators and celebrate pollinators, including eliminated pesticides and herbicides from our landscapes, making our work with B Buckets feel especially critical. I will try to post some highlights as I am reading posts among festival preparations. For now, here is a preview of the Bee-autiful Buckets in progress.  

  • Thank you, Homegrown National Park!

    Homegrown National Park has featured our buckets on their page about the Mosquito Bucket Challenge 2025! We also got a nice shoutout on their social media over the weekend. 

    We are now offering stickers (1 included in every order — and more available for purchase) for those who want to join the challenge and tag us. For those who already have our buckets, contact us for stickers! 

  • #MosquitoBucketChallenge

    mosquito bucket challenge logo, circle surrounding a drawing of a scared mosquito on a bucket

    Homegrown National Park has recently announced their first Mosquito Bucket Challenge, which all of us B Buckets folks can join. I am working on stickers that we can add to existing and future buckets to spread their message. I will reach out when they are ready. DIY and join the challenge if you beat me to it! 

    Spread the buckets. Stop the bite. Save the buzz.

  • Growing with Dana

    While I am doing my best to keep my day job and this passion project separated, there is, as is the case for most college faculty, I think, a consistent fluidity between professional and personal pursuits, as is certainly the case for me with B Buckets. 

     

    This post celebrates the end of the “Growing with Dana” series. I co-organized these workshops and lectures on native habits and habitats, with Peter Helfrich, chairperson of our Bee City USA affiliate, Beecatur (and part of the B Buckets team). The series was a public program of the Building on Dana project (2024-25), whose culmination is the exhibition Building on Dana / Patterns in Space, Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College, on view through May 19.

     

    This project/exhibition has been a once-in-a-career opportunity, not just because I have, as architectural historian, been able to study the building in which I have worked for more than two decades AND I have worked with a colleague (Nell Ruby) who helps me dream large and risk big (B Buckets, of which Nell is also design/advocate, for example) AND we have been successful in our goal to establish the Dana Fine Arts Building in architect John Portman’s early career AND we have realized it with our students in the most ambitious professional-success initiative (for them) I will ever materialize BUT, most of all, because the people who have joined as collaborators — within and beyond our campus — are incredible.

     

    AND we have started the third organic demonstration garden at Agnes Scott, in the greenspaces of the Dana Fine Arts Building, removing more than 60 invasive shrubs in August and beginning to re-establish native, pollinator-friendly plants in April. 

     

    The final program was a discussion of Integrated Pest Management. I am being clear and transparent about my (personal) goal and efforts to help encourage and support the City of Decatur, the City Schools of Decatur, and Agnes Scott College to create and implement ecologically-safe, pollinator-supportive, proactive plans (which do not, if you are unfamiliar with IPMs, prohibit chemical controls, but they put non-toxic solutions in place first, with definitions, thresholds, PLANS). I don’t think any of us is against the idea of IPMs, which Bee City USA- and Bee Campus USA-accredited communities are required to have. But IPMs take a lot of research and coordination, in advance and in process. They are dynamic documents that have to be considered and changed, to meet new challenges.

     

    Our conversation tonight gave me hope that we are on the cusp of moving beyond imagining to creating: building on and growing with all of the efforts and steps already taken, together. 

    Peter Helfrich, Chairperson of Beecatur and co-organizer of “Growing with Dana,” on IPMs (May 7), in preparation for our conversation
    Corey Wilson, Facilities Manager at Agnes Scott College, and Eliza Crofts ’22, lead gardener, at our celebration
    Mykle Williams ’26, bee researcher, People for Pollinators member, Sustainability resident
    Eliza Crofts ’22, lead gardener for the Building on Dana project, on foraging (April 23)
    Molly Embree, outgoing Director, STEM Mentored Research & STEM Scholars Program, Agnes Scott, on soil health (April 23)
    Kay Evanovich, Arborist, City of Decatur, on tree biology and care (April 9)
    Susan Meyers, Monarch Watch, on monarch butterflies (March 26)
    Allison Ericson, Urban Naturalist, City of Decatur, on native plantings (March 12) {Mary Jane Leach, Beech Hollow Wildflower Farms, not picture, was co-leader of this session]
    Peter Helfrich, Chairperson of Beecatur, and Katherine Smith, Professor of Visual Practices/Co-curator of Building on Dana / Patterns in Space [and now bucket slinger] on mosquito buckets (Feb. 26)
    Peter Helfrich, Beecatur, on native bees (Feb. 12)
  • Community Day

    We were thrilled to join Community Day, the City of Decatur’s Earth Day celebration at Legacy Park sponsored by the Environmental Sustainability Board. We had a great time talking to those at the festival about our buckets and goals. Mayor Patti Garret bought one of our DIY buckets (special for in-person events — choose 5 elements and make your own composition of native plants and pollinators).

    Leslie Inman of Pollinator Friendly Yards on Facebook, one of those who inspired me to start this bucket-making intiative, stopped by! It was a great public debut. We sold all but one bucket.