In article , Charlie wrote:
On Sun, 24 May 2009 15:36:23 -0700, Billy
wrote:
In article ,
Bill who putters wrote:
In article
,
Billy wrote:
I thought that they were such cute little bugs when I first saw them.
My attitude has changed since they have turned the leaves of my
eggplants into lace. I'm planning to use the following recipe but it
won't be ready until tommorrow.
Garlic/Pepper Mixture
€ 1/2 cup hot peppers of your choice
€ 1/2 cup garlic cloves ( onions will also do )
€ 2 cups water
Steep this mixture for 24 hours. An easy method for steeping the tea is
to combine the ingredients in a clear glass jar, seal, and set in a
sunny location. Strain and spray onto foliage.
Additionally, I check out the nursery for nematodes today. Any other
ideas?
This PDF touches on what you mostly know. Physical barriers caught my
mind. Be careful with the Rotenone like stuff. Seems you may have a
task.
Bill
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/fleabeetle.pdf
Well, spiffy. I got me some stuff called Monterey Garden Insect Spray.
which comes from Fresno, and, of course, appears to be a subsidiary for
DowAgro, aaaaaaah 
(
It has a snappy new insecticide called "spinosad".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosad
and it can kill bees and aquatic non-vertebrates.
It seems that the trick is to apply late in the evening, when there are
no bees around, and should be dry by morning (harder for the bees to get
it on them). The eggplants aren't in flower.
I got a couple of hours to think about it. What do you think?
WTF do you think I think? Have you gone nucking futz???
"Spinosad shows low toxicity when ingested by mammals (male rat LD50 =
3738 mg/kg) and no additional adverse effects from chronic exposure.
Studies on spinosad show slight toxicity to birds, moderate toxicity
to fish, and slight to moderate toxicity to aquatic invertebrates.
However, it is highly toxic to bees (honey bee LC50 = 11.5 ppm) and is
highly toxic to oysters and other marine mollusks. Applications to
areas where bees are actively foraging should be avoided. After the
residues have dried, it is much less toxic to bees.
Beneficial Trichogramma and Braconid wasps are harmed by the chemical,
but it has much less effect on such insects as lacewings and beetles
like the ladybug and spares predatory bugs such as damsel bugs and the
big-eyed bug.[4"
What FKN part of highly toxic to bees did you not understand????
What FKN part of beneficial Trichogramma and Braconid wasps are harmed
by the chemical, did you not understand???
Give up eggplant, fer effs sake!!! The life of one bee ain't worth
you having grilled eggplant!!
I don't friggin' believe it.....are you trollin' for an ass-whumpin',
you old grump?!?!?!??
Gawd, I gottao go get drunk or sumpin'.....the world just ended.
Oh, I also got some nematodes for the flea beetle larval stage.
Luckily :O) I have some twice froze habaneros (yucky) so I'll whip me
up a Scoville cocktail for the little bastides ;O)).
Charlie
As I explained, I was going to spray it when the bees weren't out. Once
it has dried, they aren't as likely to pick it up and return it to the
hive. My gully hasn't washed for a couple of months now, so I won' be
impacting any aqua thingies. And don't you get drunk without me Junger.
I'll show you how it's done properly. Some folks seem to think that all
you have to do is face the moon and howl. It ain't that easy. There is
an art form to it.
I haven't consummated my deal with the devil. When making up my garlic
and habanero libation for the flea beetle, I started coughing like I was
roasting jalapenos, but I was only blending them. I just hope it doesn't
vaporize the eggplants when I squirt it on tomorrow;o)
As luck would have it, I have a number of plants in pots, that wasps
like to hang-out in. So tomorrow, a small forest of wasp friendly plants
get moved to the eggplants, the nematodes are loosed, and I roll out the
Scoville equivalent of "shock and awe" (be my luck if they are
undocumented flea beetles). If nothin' else, I'm keeping the ground
saturated because the flea beetle likes dry soil, tough. These suckers
are going to have pneumonia by the time I'm through with them.
When I bought the "Spinosad", I was told that it was like Bt. I'll be
getting my money back tomorrow.
So go back to bed. God is in her heaven, and all is well in the garden.
Faust has left the room.
--
- Billy
"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being
is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the
moment of conception until death." - Rachel Carson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En2TzBE0lp4
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050688.html