pollen or caterpillar poop?

[Bigcat]

Can someone please tell me what the heck all the black pepper like stuff that is falling like rain and making a mess is. I think it is falling from my oak trees?
It falls every year but this season is brutal

[Backbeach Jake]

Caterpillar crap looks like grapenuts. I don't eat that cereal anymore after I realized that.

[Raven]

is meant to fly with the wind for miles

not rain down to the ground.

i.d say its pillar poopies

[ProfessorM]

It is either gypsy moth crap or the winter moth crap. I see you live on Cape so I suspect winter moth, which is supose to be bad on Cape. Oaks are the food of choice. I got same problem here, gypsy moth's. House gutters are full up. Several oaks are just about completely defoliated now. Things are crawling all over the house and porch. Comes in cycles. PIA. Paul

[Got Stripers]

I hate that crap and I do mean crap, even running the truck through the car wash can't get it off. It's a pain this time of year.

[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

[ProfessorM]

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]

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.

[ProfessorM]

You are right. You never know what is going to happen long term with any of these preventative measures. Sometimes it takes a long time to finally figure out if it is good or bad. Nothing is perfect. Pretty impossible to grow anything on a large scale without some kind of chemicals involved. One good thing about having a small garden you can pick out the insects and know what is going onto your plate. I have been growing apples,pears, and peaches for years and there is no way you can grow them with out chemicals. I have tried and never pervailed. My best crops were when I did a weekly spray program which is a lot of work. Miss one application and the dam bugs take over and that doesn't take into consideration the disease's that plague fruit trees too. You wouldn't belive how much spraying goes into fruit tree's and veggies too. There are so many insects and disease's that love apples that I am ready to give up. Way too much work for the rewards. Not to mention the crappy,cold springs the last few years. No pollination with the limited wild bees around who hate the cold wet weather and will not work in those conditions. Thank goodness for bumble's because they will work in that kind of weather. You almost need to keep bees if you want to have even a few fruit trees. Insects will rule the earth someday. Man sorry for the rant. My wife is right I am grumpy. Paul

[outfished]

Hey Professor, I hear your ranting and raving and take it to heart. I grow and maintain a small field of vegetables(3.5 acres) and it's a handful to say the least. I haven't sprayed anything this year and hope I don't need to, I'm trying to keep it organic if possible. Last year at another location I had to deal with blight (antracnosis) it it was just total devastation for three years and I finally gave up. Sure I could of saturated the area with chemicals but I was defeating the purpose of going organic and with all the health issues attached to spraying I opted out. I did try the bourdeau mixture(copper sulfate) and that did help the grapes some, but everything else just rotted away. It didn't help that some surrounding properties had the same problem and unless the owners there choose to do fix their problem, I was left on my own and could never rid the problem. I know fruit trees are fairly delicate and require special handling and I've been thinking of starting some, but now I'm not so sure. Best of luck brother!

[ProfessorM]

Don't get me wrong I love to garden and the fruit is my favorite but the work involved with fruit trees is non stop. It is fun the first few years but it soon gets to be constant work. Pruning, fert.,spraying, harvest if yu are lucky. Try a few first before you go hog wild. I suggest blueberries. Alot less work and you can't beat the harvest. Just birds to worry about. Always something. I commend you trying organic. I use it in my little plot. On a grand scale it has to be tuff. Good luck. Paul

[outfished]

Blueberrie's are on my list for next year. I have tons of raspberries and blackberries but those are fairly maintenance free. So far so good at my plot, no bugs to report. Here's a tip that may help with insects. Located around my plot are several sparrow house's I've put up over the years and are all occupied by new families all summer long. I've observed that early in the morning around daybreak that the adult sparrows love to hand out in my plot devouring insects by the buckets. That my be why insects haven't been a concern...yet. I also have erected several bat house's on the edge of the property and watch about a half a dozen bats flying and diving over the plot at night, again eating buckets of bugs. Ahhhh, mother nature at its best!