pollen or caterpillar poop?

[ProfessorM]

Well most all my oaks are denuded now. the damn catapillars have eaten everything What really pissed me off was I went out to look at my blueberries and the MFers are eating them too. Now I take my blueberry growing serious so I got a broom and started to crush the suckers. They are easy to kill in the daytime because they come down from the tree in the day and congregate on the trunk and then start back up the tree to start eating the crap out of the tree at night. I went around to all the oaks and must have killed 10,000 of the suckers with the broom. They are real big now so it was easy picking, they just sit there and the broom is a great killing machine, leaf rake works good too. The problem is all the damage has been done but I got some satisfaction out of it until on the last tree I got stung by one of those white tipped wasp's. Man did that hurt Oh well I just can't win. Paul

[Raven]

but not blueberrys, you should spray them with bacillus thuringesis
catapillar spray....(SAFER PRODUCT) i bought mine at worms way... to stop catapillars from eating my broccolli.... works MINT. saferbrand.com

[The Dad Fisherman]

Scientists: Insect Would Kill Coca Crops


BOGOTA,Colombia - A group of Colombian scientists believe they've found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for "ecological mischief" is high.


The plan envisions breeding thousands of beige-colored Eloria Noyesi moths in laboratories, packing them into boxes and releasing them into steamy coca-growing regions of Colombia, the world's main supplier of the drug. The moths, about twice the size of a fly, are native only to the Andean region of South America.

Colombian Environment Minister Sandra Suarez told The Associated Press that the government considers the proposal an "interesting alternative" to existing eradication methods.

Carlos Alberto Gomez, president of the privately funded National Network of Botanical Gardens, made the proposal last week. He said the moths would naturally make a beeline for the coca plants and lay their eggs on the leaves. About a week later, caterpillars would emerge and destroy the plants by devouring the leaves.

Each moth could lay eggs on more than a hundred plants in one month, said Gonzalo Andrade, a biology professor with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, who has been working with the botanical garden group. He called it a natural solution to eradication.

"It would be like fumigating the crops with moths," Andrade said.

But the idea has already drawn criticism.

Ricardo Vargas, director of the Colombian environmental group Andean Action, contended that while the moths may be native to this region, there's nothing natural about releasing thousands of them into small areas. The tropics have the world's most diverse plant life, he said, so the moths would likely threaten other plants as well.

"With a plan like this, the chance for ecological mischief is very high and very dangerous," Vargas said.

Gomez's association also recommended the use of other natural enemies of coca such as fungus.

The proposal, and the Colombian government's interest, comes five years into a massive fumigation program of coca crops in Colombia, paid for and mostly carried out by the U.S. government.

A record number of acres was fumigated by the crop dusters last year, but the total number of acres under cultivation at the end of 2004 was slightly more than the number left over in 2003 after spraying. Peasant farmers have been simply replanting the fast-growing coca, frustrating the eradication efforts.

Andrade said moths would better counter the replanting problem because they would continue to reproduce and attack the plants.

The idea to use biological agents to eradicate coca is not new.

In 2000, the Colombian government rejected a proposal by the United States to introduce a fungus called Fusarium oxysporum to coca plants as a means of eradication. Colombia said it was concerned about possible mutations and adverse affects on people and the environment in the delicate Amazon basin, where most of Colombia's coca is grown.

[ProfessorM]

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]

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]

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]

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

[ProfessorM]

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]

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