Mosquito busters for your backyard

It’s summertime, and the livin’ is … buggy. In much of the country, Swat Season is in full swing, and the shelves sag with products that claim to help you survive in comfort.  Unfortunately, most of these items are little better than the pests they purport to defeat, homing in on your desperation like a female skeeter chasing carbon dioxide.

We asked some of the nation’s foremost mosquito experts to evaluate the claims of popular products now available. You may be surprised at what truly delivers relief.

Home-supply glut pushes stocks lower

The slumping housing market helped drive the stock market lower today.The National Association of Realtors reported this morning that the supply of homes and condominiums for sale — measured in months’ supply — was the largest in 16 years.

The news ended whatever hope investors had for a continuation of Friday’s rally. The Dow Jones industrials finished the day down just under 57 points, 0.4%, to 13,322. The Nasdaq Composite Index was off 15 points, 0.6%, to 2,561, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 12.6 points, 0.9%, to 1,467.

The best news was that the declines were decidedly modest. The worst thing about the report of growing inventories of unsold homes was that it didn’t reflect the effect of the credit crunch on the housing market.

There have been increasing reports around the country that the credit crunch has stalled — if not killed — home sales in many markets, as buyers have found that mortgage financing isn’t available. That market reality won’t appear until next month when the Realtors group reports sales for August.