pollen or caterpillar poop? - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

ProfessorM · 06-09-2005, 03:06 PM

Yeah I should have but forgot. When they get this big they are not that effected by the Bt. It works great and non toxic. Catapillars ingest and it shuts down their digestive tract. They starve to death not poisoned. You really got to get them when they are small. I usually do not have a problem with the cat. on blueberries, apples yes, but this year is a very heavy infestation. When they are done with oaks they look for other things to eat. I have even seen them eat pine trees 20 years ago. Looks like a forest fire went thru the area. I should have looked earlier. Stupid. P.

Raven · 06-09-2005, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor Moriarty

Yeah I should have but forgot. When they get this big they are not that effected by the Bt. It works great and non toxic. Catapillars ingest and it shuts down their digestive tract. They starve to death not poisoned. You really got to get them when they are small. I usually do not have a problem with the cat. on blueberries, apples yes, but this year is a very heavy infestation. When they are done with oaks they look for other things to eat. I have even seen them eat pine trees 20 years ago. Looks like a forest fire went thru the area. I should have looked earlier. Stupid. P.

out in the garden sometimes is my small shopvac.

ProfessorM · 06-09-2005, 03:21 PM

The problem with screwing around with mother nature is it can bite you in the ass. Look at the gypsy moth. Brought here to produce a better silk. It escapes in a storm and bingo, problem. All these foreign insects and disease's, blights, invasive plants and animals have run amuck in this country. Few examples Wolly Adilged, spelling? eating all the hemlocks on eastern seaboard, Gypsy Moths, Killer bees, Red lilly beetle, purple loosestrife, dutch elm disease, chestnut blight, fruit fly, plant choaking out the everglades and swamps of the south, can't think of it's name, but was thrown from the window of a car into the swamp after a plant show in Fla. many years ago and now is taking over the whole everglades and southern swamps, the list goes on. You save one thing and wipe out another. They are right you have to be careful with things that do not belong in certain areas. Just my 2 cents. Paul

Raven · 06-18-2005, 04:18 PM

i hired a cast away to help break it loose...

ProfessorM · 06-18-2005, 08:29 PM

The eating has slowed down this weekend. Probably because they ate all the trees to nutin. So I decided to clean the gutters because they won't work from all the sh-t in there. You would not believe it filled to the top. I mean filled. Probably better than bat guano. Could have filled a trash barrel. I will put it in the compost pile got to be benificial. Now I got thousands of yellow cacoons all over the house. If it is this bad next year I will break down and have the yard sprayed early. It does work because I did it 12 years ago. Paul

kayaman · 06-23-2005, 07:49 AM

just read an article about the bastards... the winter moths are just about done... the tents are just getting going... the experts say that it would appear that they are cycling up again

thay say it may be as bad as the 1981 cycle that had them crawling over everything

ProfessorM · 06-23-2005, 10:30 AM

Gypsy's are still eating in my yard. Really don't know what there are no leaves on any of the tree's. I am glad we don't have the winter moths here this year too. Paul

outfished · 06-28-2005, 12:49 PM

Professor, you mentioned BT, I assume your talking about Bacillus thuringiensis? From what I've been reading the past couple of years is that this stuff is a true nightmare in the making. From the way I understand it is that BT works by constipating the insect resulting in no poopies for it and causing it to die. The problem is that the harmful insects that BT targets are part of the food chain. Other critters ingest the treated bugs and experiance the same same results, no poopies. In third world countries where BT is allowed(yes, here in the U.S as well) , the chemical make-up of BT is now beginning to show up in humans and you guessed it, no poopies. Digestive tracts in humans are getting compromised and companies that produce BT(monsanto) are in full denial. Crops that use Bt are crossing over into crops that don't use it and are being contaminated at alarming rates. Insects that help farms are being found dead in huge numbers and the companies are all in denial, and there are still unknowns about BT to yet surface down the road. Not good to mess with mother nature imo.