Martin Brown wrote:
I have been slightly lightheaded after transplanting a lot of datura
seedlings ...

I drank some tea made of it when I was a yout. We ended up boiling some
water to throw at the 'moving black things on the lino' because they
were 'attacking us'. These 'black things' were cigarette burns ...

We eventually ran out of the room screaming )))

Tobacco... and it is sold in any corner shop....

Or anything that is cooked by my wife!

Tim C. writes
Following up to "Martin Brown" :

It used to be used as an insecticide in the old days..

and still is, from the point of view of the tobacco plant itself. ;-)

This has always puzzled me. I assume most of Nicotiana contain nicotine?
- or is it just the tobacco plant itself? Nicotiana sylvestris, for
example, is a magnet for whitefly. Its main defence seems to be the
stickiness of its leaves, but it doesn't protect very well - the heavy
infestation that it attracts causes real damage.
--
Kay

On 6/12/06 14:53, in article
, "judith lea"
wrote:


I think we have won with our uninvited visitors, son reported scuttling
noises so I put a couple of mouse traps up into loft and over the next 5
days got 9 longtailed field mice. Been 3 days now of no bait taken or traps
set off, so hopefully that's the lot. I may of course be left with the
smarter ones!!

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.

Last night I thought there were elephants jumping right over my head
and in the cavity wall, behind my head. I have just been up there and
all the traps are still baited. I say it is a rat but Edward says it's
mice. However, last time he said that, the vermin man presented him
with a dead rat from number 1 attic, i.e. over the bedrooms! I shall
have to call him in again, this is getting expensive.

I've just had a thought, could it be bats as they do fly around outside
my bedroom window at night and I have taken to closing it as I am
scared of them.

Bats are pretty much soundless and *totally* harmless from your point of
view. We sit outside on summer evenings here, just to watch them and when
one got into our bedroom through an open window, our attempts to help it out
merely confused the poor thing. In the end, we turned off all the lights,
shut the door and left it to its own devices and it disappeared.
I would certainly suggest getting the vermin man in and you might like to
consider having a contract with them. We do that here and they come every 6
weeks in the 'active' season and less in the non-active season. It soothes
my worries about chewed up electric cabling etc. We use a company called
Baroque and are very satisfied with their expertise but I don't know if they
operate country wide.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/

On 6/12/06 15:01, in article
, "P. Alves"
wrote:

Tobacco... and it is sold in any corner shop....

Or anything that is cooked by my wife!

Makes me think of Bill Bryson. He said his mother's cooking was so bad that
their kitchen was known as "The Burns Unit". ;-)

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/

In message , Chris Hogg
writes
On 5 Dec 2006 11:36:42 -0800, "luke" wrote:

i know that olearea is toxic because i grow it

News to me, and I grow several species. Are you sure and if so, can
you give any more info?



I think he means Oleander, not Olearia.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

In message , K
writes
Tim C. writes
Following up to "Martin Brown" :

It used to be used as an insecticide in the old days..

and still is, from the point of view of the tobacco plant itself. ;-)

This has always puzzled me. I assume most of Nicotiana contain
nicotine? - or is it just the tobacco plant itself? Nicotiana
sylvestris, for example, is a magnet for whitefly. Its main defence
seems to be the stickiness of its leaves, but it doesn't protect very
well - the heavy infestation that it attracts causes real damage.

The amount, at least, will vary between species. I presume that
Nicotiana tabacum produces more nicotine that the general run of
species. Furthermore, it is likely that commercial varieties have been
selected for greater production of nicotine.

Apart from that, poisonous plants often get heavy infestations of the
few insects that have adapted to the poisons. (E.g. ragweed and cinnabar
moth.)
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

i have handled datula and ragwort i want to know what is the most
poisonous plant

On 6/12/06 18:28, in article
, "luke"
wrote:

i have handled datula and ragwort i want to know what is the most
poisonous plant

Why?
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/

Sacha wrote:
On 6/12/06 14:53, in article

Bats are pretty much soundless and *totally* harmless from your point of
view. We sit outside on summer evenings here, just to watch them and when
one got into our bedroom through an open window, our attempts to help it out
merely confused the poor thing. In the end, we turned off all the lights,
shut the door and left it to its own devices and it disappeared.

You have just guaranteed me another sleepless night, a vampire in the
bedroom! The windows are locked tight and suddenly the vermin seem the
lesser evil.

I would certainly suggest getting the vermin man in and you might like to
consider having a contract with them.

We do have this chap come in who has the contract for our district
council and we have to book him through their offices but we have to
pay, it's not a free service in private houses. The damage to the
insulation, last year, of the water pipes is enormous but on checking
this year, there has not been any activity until now - we bought some
more traps today - larger ones!

On 6/12/06 22:08, in article
, "judith lea"
wrote:


Sacha wrote:
On 6/12/06 14:53, in article

Bats are pretty much soundless and *totally* harmless from your point of
view. We sit outside on summer evenings here, just to watch them and when
one got into our bedroom through an open window, our attempts to help it out
merely confused the poor thing. In the end, we turned off all the lights,
shut the door and left it to its own devices and it disappeared.

You have just guaranteed me another sleepless night, a vampire in the
bedroom! The windows are locked tight and suddenly the vermin seem the
lesser evil.

Tsk! The bats are more interesting and less harmful to you or your house,
than the vermin!

I would certainly suggest getting the vermin man in and you might like to
consider having a contract with them.

We do have this chap come in who has the contract for our district
council and we have to book him through their offices but we have to
pay, it's not a free service in private houses. The damage to the
insulation, last year, of the water pipes is enormous but on checking
this year, there has not been any activity until now - we bought some
more traps today - larger ones!

We pay for our vermin contract but it's a necessity in such a rural area and
where young plants are so attractive to mice and rats. They seem to be
quite active still and one of the family living close by has just borrowed
one of the nursery's bait boxes. However, today is a lot colder - and the
rain and gales have just returned - so all this busy dashing about by the
mice might be about to stop. I hope!


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/

Sacha wrote:

On 6/12/06 14:53, in article
, "judith lea"
wrote:

I think we have won with our uninvited visitors, son reported scuttling
noises so I put a couple of mouse traps up into loft and over the next 5
days got 9 longtailed field mice. Been 3 days now of no bait taken or traps
set off, so hopefully that's the lot. I may of course be left with the
smarter ones!!

Last night I thought there were elephants jumping right over my head
and in the cavity wall, behind my head. I have just been up there and
all the traps are still baited. I say it is a rat but Edward says it's
mice. However, last time he said that, the vermin man presented him
with a dead rat from number 1 attic, i.e. over the bedrooms! I shall
have to call him in again, this is getting expensive.

I've just had a thought, could it be bats as they do fly around outside
my bedroom window at night and I have taken to closing it as I am
scared of them.

Bats are pretty much soundless and *totally* harmless from your point of
view. We sit outside on summer evenings here, just to watch them and when
one got into our bedroom through an open window, our attempts to help it out
merely confused the poor thing. In the end, we turned off all the lights,
shut the door and left it to its own devices and it disappeared.

Bat watch comes round to count our roost every couple of years. Just
over 200 pipestrelles at the last count. I have had the odd bat get
into the house at the stage when the youngsters first try to fly as
they fit through tiny gaps. They also crash about a bit in the loft for
a couple of nights whilst learning to fly. The tiny ones can't half
climb up a brick wall though!

Unfortunately for them cannot climb up the shiny paint of skirting
boards to get airborne again if they end up on the ground inside the
house. One that landed in the kitchen sink and got stuck alarmed my
wife. If they get cold they go into a torpor and if you find one "dead"
on the carpet in the early morning chances are it will wake up again
when you pick it up and it gets some warmth from your hand. If it shows
signs of life take it back to the roost.

I think you are supposed to have had rabies jabs, and it is illegal to
molest them. But by the time a bat handler arrives the poor creature
would be already dead so it is the least bad option provided that you
are OK with handling small mammals. I was told by the bat people that
it is hard to be bitten by a pipestrelle.. Worth asking advice from
your local group if you have recurring problems with them getting into
the main house.

Regards,
Martin Brown

what does bats have to do with toxic plants

and dont make fun of my spelling

luke writes
what does bats have to do with toxic plants

and dont make fun of my spelling

What software are you using to read this? The bats discussion is in a
separate thread - has your software mangled them together? And who has
made fun of your spelling?
--
Kay

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote:
"Martin Brown" wrote in message
Duncan wrote:

but Nicotiana probably kills more than all the other poisonous
plants put
together.

It used to kill the people who smuggled the leaves in olden days
(nasty way to go).

So how did they die, or perhaps more correctly, I mean what was
the
cause of death?

To smuggle it sailors wrapped the leaves around their body inside
their
clothes. When they sweated profsely on a hot day the nicotine
dissolves
slightly and crosses into the body. Death by nicotine poisoning is
very
unpleasant. Tobacco pickers often suffer a milder form of nicotine
poisoning - I think it targets the central nervous system.

Interesting. Ithought it must ahve been a poisoning reference rather
than a smoking one, but had not heard of that before.

It used to be used as an insecticide in the old days but these days
is
considered too toxic in mammals (and can harbour tobacco mosaic
virus -
which will infect many other plants)..

You can extract LD50 of nicotine from a couple of cigarettes with
the
right solvents. On toxicological grounds you would not sell tobacco
to
the general public if it was discovered today. And as for smoking
the
stuff - in theory at a chemical plant you should fill in a hazardous
experiment form each time before lighting up (for doing an
experiment
that will synthesise and release known carcinogens into the
environment).

Actually it (supposedly) still can be used as poison. I've come
across organic gardeners who soaked butts and used the resultant
straind off liquid as a poison spray. In fact I was going to try it
on something myself and had soaked butts for a few days but then
couldn't find the noted I'd made to try it out so ditched the lot down
the drain.

I do know that it's supposedly not advisable to smoke whilst doing
things around one's tomatoes because of the mosaic virus.

Interesting stuff. Thanks again.