> >Hi Tobias - > >Yes, "weeds" deliver messages about soil conditions. I have never noticed or >correlated information about insects such as you suggest. Surely there must >be some information we should be paying attention to there, but there are many >more environmental conditions that influence insects than influence root rots >or root-feeding nematodes. And I am a microbiologist, not an entomologist. I >don't know insect life cycles the way I know fungal, bacterial, protozoan or >nematode life-cycles. We'd need to bring in another expert to begin to >correlate this information. > >Now that you bring it up, I will keep this idea in the back of my mind, and >see if I can pull something together. I will probably bring this up with Andy >Moldenke, and see if he can comment. > >Sorry I couldn't be more help. > >Elaine > > > >Allan Balliett wrote: > >> > >> > Dear Elaine, >> > plants and in particular "weeds" can give us a fair idea about the >> > condition of our soil.Does the same apply to insect damage? >> > Some insects are pod piercing/sucking like GVB others pod and leaf >> > chewing like Heliothis others are stem boring and so on.Do the >> > different operating insects indicate or point to certain conditions >> > inthe soil and or plant? >> > >> > Thank you >> > >> > Tobias Koenig
