Category: design

  • 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

  • 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! 

  • A Bee-autiful Bucket

    Here is our first designed bucket after almost 9 months of experiments and prototypes. This one, with bee balm and butterfly (yes, bees would have been a more logical choice perhaps, but we wanted to try these two elements), integrates our natives plants and pollinators with representational force!

    We have more designs to share. But here is the preview, for now! Thanks, Nell!

  • Sprays & Buckets: Problem & Solution

    My family has had Beecatur’s sign stating that “MOSQUITO SPRAYING KILLS BEES” in our yard for a few years, since I took the Pollinator Pledge and started adding native plants. I am glad to have the B BUCKETS sign beside it now, announcing to the community a solution and alternative to abatement sprays — and opportunities for education. Together we can make progress on this challenge of controlling mosquitoes without toxic chemicals.

  • Mosquito Buckets are OUT (and IN)

    Mosquito buckets are out in my yard; I have four, but I clearly need to add some more. And I need to remove some more invasives, again. I have a losing battle with Nandina, as you can see. 

    Intown Ace only had 1 only bucket a 2 lids left this afternoon. Thank you, Decatur neighbors! We are off to a good start. Let’s keep going.

    Intown Ace Hardware will have more buckets on Tuesday, as will B Buckets. 

    Let’s make this the year when mosquito buckets are the popular choice!

  • Signs

    While this does not rise to the level of the conventional bucket list, today I realized on of my longterm goals when I picked up these signs, designed by Nell Ruby. Thanks, Nell!

    The are significant revisions of the pesticide warning signs that companies leave to warn residents to stay off lawns for hours after a chemical application, whether a pyrethroid pesticide, fogger sprayed on foundations and shrubs to kill or 2, 4-D pre-emergent herbicide, hose applied as a weedkiller on grass. 

    In my opinion, we should all be seeking alternatives and questioning the safety of these applications. The longterm health effects on humans for the former are unknown; in my understanding, the latter is one of two chemicals that made up Agent Orange, banned in some countries, still allowed here, and masked by the proprietary claims of many companies. 

    These small signs are big advocacy and resistance, hopefully unexpected, even subversive enough to draw attention — and to start conversation. Please ask questions. 

    And anticipate one sign per order of buckets; also available for order.