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 When Martha Clark attends a baby shower, the Nashville, Tennessee resident wraps her gift in a diaper . . . and seals it with diaper pins!

Janet Holinsworth took our plea for "horse sense ideas" literally! Jan (a reader from Newkirk, Oklahoma) concocts a puree from garlic, hot peppers, salad oil, and water . . . and sprays the tangy mixture on stalls and fences to discourage her two young colts from chewing on the wood.

Wylma Temples—a reader from Vidalia, Georgia—mixes her own home-brewed insect repellent by swirling a handful of green onion tops in a half-gallon of warm water and letting the mixture steep overnight. On the following day she adds a few drops of biodegradable detergent and shakes the liquid well. Then Wylma strains the onion tops out of the brew and pours the fluid into a spray bottle. She reports that bugs steer clear of the garden when crops are sprayed with this aromatic discourager.

And speaking of repellents, Andrew Hegdinger keeps mosquitoes away by diluting a small amount of household bleach with water and applying a splash of the solution to those often summer-bared parts of his anatomy that the bugs seem to like best. The Houston, Texan claims that humans won't be aware of the bleach smell after the liquid dries, but the skeeters will . . . and they'll stay away.

Now that we've discouraged the insect population from attacking our gardens and ourselves, perhaps you'll appreciate this tip on keeping the little beasties out of the house! Celey Baum—who hails from Farmington, Utah—glues (or ties) a round piece of cotton, about the size of a walnut, at an eye-level position on the outside of each screen door. The Beehive Stater isn't sure exactly why this method scares bugs away from the doors where they'd otherwise hang around in hopes of a chance to sneak in (perhaps they think the cotton is a spider's nest), but Celey insists that the cotton has kept the Baum household relatively insect-free for years.

You can keep your cauliflower's heads white this summer by stretching old panty hose legs over them, writes Vicki Eastwood of Centerville, Kansas. First, neatly overlap the foliage to cover the developing head . . . then slip on the stocking and secure it to the stem.

What's more, Ruth Baird of Lancaster, Massachusetts suggests using the same trick to shield ripening sunflowers so that the seeds aren't attacked by hungry birds.

"You've probably heard about placing a saucer of beer in the garden to trap slugs," writes Jane Huffman of Strafford, Missouri. (We had.) "But I've come up with something that's a little less expensive and is easier for me to use. When I want to catch slugs in the garden, I simply set out a little sourdough batter in a shallow container. The slugs climb in and drown . . . and I have a great delicacy for my chickens, who love slugs smothered in sourdough!"

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