Re: Insect peppers.
Dear Gil, Apologies for the delay in answering, the weather has been so unseasonably warm that I have been busy doing work that normally would not need doing until spring. I dont know why your experiment has not worked. If divine inspiration gives me an answer I will contact you. There is just so much to learn about agricultural radionics that it is important to know what has not worked as well as what has. The only thing that I can think of is that it could have been burnt in Mercury in retrograde which appears to nullify the effects of burning peppers. regards James Hedley - Original Message - From: Gil Robertson To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 3:56 PM Subject: Re: Insect peppers. Hi! James, the tin cans were used to contain the material being burnt. I use the tin only once to avoid pollution. I used fruit wood, so that there was little chance of resin, essential oil or other material from the wood getting into pepper. The burning fruit wood is the heat source and the tin is the containment. Gil James Hedley wrote: Dear Gil, I have difficulty follwing the part of your post " the burning was at the right time by the Llewellyn's Moon Guide you > recommended. I remember clearly it in the small hours of a particularly cold > night. I used fruit wood from pruning my fruit trees and a new tin can for each > Prep. I did ten or so that time." Could you please clarify what you were doing again as I can't see what pruning fruit trees, tin cans and preps have to do with each other. Regards James >
Re: Insect peppers
- Subject: Re: Insect peppers Hi all had a slug problem way back in 1994 They were decimating a quarter of an acre of daffodils. So one night at full moon I collected about 100 slugs /snails placed then into a container with about 2 litres of water and let them rot away until the next full moon . I then diluted this mix one in 10 and sprayed 3 nights in row and repeated the exercise the following month. I started to harvesting this crop again in 95 and have been able to do so since with very little slug damage. It will be interesting to see what happens this year. Cheers Tony Robinson Hi Tony and all There is a reference to decomposing insects for pepper in about the middle of lecture six - I'm surprised more people have not picked this up Lloyd Charles Hi Lloyd It was that and Maria Thun passage in her book Work on the Land and the Constellation page 41 that encouraged me to try this method. I used just water so it was pretty smelly stuff. The kids have just started to pick these flowers So i must get out and checkand see what has happen after about 6-7 years . Cheers Tony
Re: Insect peppers
- Original Message - From: Rambler Flowers LTD To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2002 7:05 PM Subject: Re: Insect peppers Hi all had a slug problem way back in 1994 They were decimating a quarter of an acre of daffodils. So one night at full moon I collected about 100 slugs /snails placed then into a container with about 2 litres of water and let them rot away until the next full moon . I then diluted this mix one in 10 and sprayed 3 nights in row and repeated the exercise the following month. I started to harvesting this crop again in 95 and have been able to do so since with very little slug damage. It will be interesting to see what happens this year. Cheers Tony Robinson Hi Tony and all There is a reference to decomposing insects for pepper in about the middle of lecture six - I'm surprised more people have not picked this up Lloyd Charles
Re: Insect peppers
- Original Message . I gathered some slugs (quite a few) into a bottle of alcohol and, absent minded, left them on the front porch for a couple of months in the sun. When their mates decided to eat all my wifes strawberries and I went looking for the bodies for cremation there was only some brown mucky liquid in the bottle (90 proof spirit so burning this lot is going to be interesting) I just used it as was to make a D8 potency and put that out with a water can - spectacular result!! The slug one worked so well that I decided to try again when we got a few white ants in the back of our house - this time I meant to do it - some termites - these boys are pretty active they ate my 1inch hardwood tomato stakes clean through three times in the one season last year - from a trap box in the yard went into a bottle of water with a bit of solubilised ant dirt from the burrows, put in the sun on the window sill for about a week or so and then potentised up - six different potencies from D8 up to 5mm mixed together and drizzled round once about six weeks ago - this one is looking good at this stage too. These were instrument potencies in both cases so there was no actual substance left the bottles - its not a fungus or disease effect! Sounds crazy I know but it really worked! Cheers all Lloyd Charles Hi all had a slug problem way back in 1994 They were decimating a quarter of an acre of daffodils. So one night at full moon I collected about 100 slugs /snails placed then into a container with about 2 litres of water and let them rot away until the next full moon . I then diluted this mix one in 10 and sprayed 3 nights in row and repeated the exercise the following month. I started to harvesting this crop again in 95 and have been able to do so since with very little slug damage. It will be interesting to see what happens this year. Cheers Tony Robinson
Re: Insect peppers
Dear Essie, A quantity the size of a garden pea is approximately a gram. Ziplocs will ship to England better. Best, Hugh Of course, Hugh. I'd be happy to send you samples. Would vials be better than zip-locks? Just let me know. It'll be the weekend before I can get to it. Also, each of my vials is about 1/3 full of pepper. How much is that in grams, would you say? Essie At 08:12 AM 06/25/02 -0400, you wrote: Dear Essie, Would it be possible to get a sample of each of your peppers? A gram or two in a tiny ziploc bag would do. And can you determine what species(s) of slug you have? I take it there are several. I would like to send them off to England and have Malcolm Rae cards made. That way we can make up potencies as appropriate to each location. I gather you are using the straight pepper in your broadcaster without potentization. I guess we'll see how that works, but I have a feeling potencies are safer and will work better. Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture. As for fungus on strawberries, the old one--two punch involves tieing up the nitrates in the soil with an evening time drench of oak bark (505) and then spraying the foliage with the equisetum the next morning. The oak bark holds back the nitrates from the lime side so the plant is less salty and watery, while the horsetail draws in warmth from the silica side and hardens the plant. Best, Hugh At 09:40 PM 6/24/02 -0400, Allan wrote: Essie - would you mind including a little more 'how to' info on your pepper making? What's your track record like? -Allan Allan - Here's the procedure, as I've done it. Collect as many specimens as you feel necessary. I collected a good 100 slugs, most adolescent, a couple of adults. All in one pass through the potatoes. Probably 50 potato beetles (dead), and maybe 70 potato beetle larvae (from lilies). The count is not exact. First I cooked the slugs. Put them in a small glass saucepan with cover (turned on the stove fan), and cooked them slowly until they were blackened. Then I crunched them up and cooked them some more until they were mostly (not entirely, however - I didn't have quite enough patience) white ash. Then cooled them a bit and put the ash into a small glass vial and put vial into bottom well of field broadcaster (slugs crawl rather than fly - hence bottom well). I followed the same process with the adult potato beetles, but put that vial into the upper well (since they fly). I followed the same process with the larvae, putting that vial into the bottom well. The larvae were shredding my Casa Blanca lilies (no others), and the shredded leaves were covered with what clearly was excrement, with larvae in the middle of the excrement. They definitely eat where they shit. And vice versa. Now, I've previously only peppered with slugs. Five years ago, I did it once and had (truly) an 80 percent reduction in two weeks. The next year I did it again and had an 80-85 percent reduction. Until this year, I was virtually slug-free since then. But this year the potatoes were innundated, with both slugs and adult potato beetles. The lilies were shredded by potato beetle larvae, and I've never had that problem before, ever. My area is low and wet, easily prone to slugs. Also, I used a great deal of leaf mulch this year as well - which apparently served as a "Y'all come" to the slug legions. Now, I made all peppers yesterday. Tonight, on patrol, I found two slugs, one beetle larva, and 11 adult beetles (10 of them copulating, two by two. The odd duck was doing something that could've been self-stimulating, but it was dark, the flashlight was weak, and I felt that the least I could do was to respect his/her privacy before squashing him/her. We've had a drastic change in weather since yesterday - from days of rain and drizzle to high pressure with some strong breezes and sun. The weather change definitely could influence the change in population. Stay tuned. I'll report on population levels every few days. Now, I also do have flea beetles and no stinging nettle to make a tea. They are too small to catch and pepper, or, believe me, I'd do that. Just to tack on a marginally related question - would application of equisetum tea be a good preventative for fungus on strawberries? Putting plants into tub with bubblers for a couple of days and then diluting a bit (how much?)? Best, Essie "CIA stands for Capitalism's Invisible Army" Buckminster Fuller Visit our website at: www.unionag.org Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
Re: Insect peppers
Dear Gil, It is hard to burn completely to ash. In some of your successful efforts you may have had a little charcoal left, eh? But I commonly enough burn an intent with my peppers too. How can it hurt? Best, Hugh >Hi! Hugh, >I am very interested in your comment:- "Also, it is my belief that you do >NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon >framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you >want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture." Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
Re: Insect peppers
Of course, Hugh. I'd be happy to send you samples. Would vials be better than zip-locks? Just let me know. It'll be the weekend before I can get to it. Also, each of my vials is about 1/3 full of pepper. How much is that in grams, would you say? Essie At 08:12 AM 06/25/02 -0400, you wrote: Dear Essie, Would it be possible to get a sample of each of your peppers? A gram or two in a tiny ziploc bag would do. And can you determine what species(s) of slug you have? I take it there are several. I would like to send them off to England and have Malcolm Rae cards made. That way we can make up potencies as appropriate to each location. I gather you are using the straight pepper in your broadcaster without potentization. I guess we'll see how that works, but I have a feeling potencies are safer and will work better. Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture. As for fungus on strawberries, the old one--two punch involves tieing up the nitrates in the soil with an evening time drench of oak bark (505) and then spraying the foliage with the equisetum the next morning. The oak bark holds back the nitrates from the lime side so the plant is less salty and watery, while the horsetail draws in warmth from the silica side and hardens the plant. Best, Hugh At 09:40 PM 6/24/02 -0400, Allan wrote: Essie - would you mind including a little more 'how to' info on your pepper making? What's your track record like? -Allan Allan - Here's the procedure, as I've done it. Collect as many specimens as you feel necessary. I collected a good 100 slugs, most adolescent, a couple of adults. All in one pass through the potatoes. Probably 50 potato beetles (dead), and maybe 70 potato beetle larvae (from lilies). The count is not exact. First I cooked the slugs. Put them in a small glass saucepan with cover (turned on the stove fan), and cooked them slowly until they were blackened. Then I crunched them up and cooked them some more until they were mostly (not entirely, however - I didn't have quite enough patience) white ash. Then cooled them a bit and put the ash into a small glass vial and put vial into bottom well of field broadcaster (slugs crawl rather than fly - hence bottom well). I followed the same process with the adult potato beetles, but put that vial into the upper well (since they fly). I followed the same process with the larvae, putting that vial into the bottom well. The larvae were shredding my Casa Blanca lilies (no others), and the shredded leaves were covered with what clearly was excrement, with larvae in the middle of the excrement. They definitely eat where they shit. And vice versa. Now, I've previously only peppered with slugs. Five years ago, I did it once and had (truly) an 80 percent reduction in two weeks. The next year I did it again and had an 80-85 percent reduction. Until this year, I was virtually slug-free since then. But this year the potatoes were innundated, with both slugs and adult potato beetles. The lilies were shredded by potato beetle larvae, and I've never had that problem before, ever. My area is low and wet, easily prone to slugs. Also, I used a great deal of leaf mulch this year as well - which apparently served as a "Y'all come" to the slug legions. Now, I made all peppers yesterday. Tonight, on patrol, I found two slugs, one beetle larva, and 11 adult beetles (10 of them copulating, two by two. The odd duck was doing something that could've been self-stimulating, but it was dark, the flashlight was weak, and I felt that the least I could do was to respect his/her privacy before squashing him/her. We've had a drastic change in weather since yesterday - from days of rain and drizzle to high pressure with some strong breezes and sun. The weather change definitely could influence the change in population. Stay tuned. I'll report on population levels every few days. Now, I also do have flea beetles and no stinging nettle to make a tea. They are too small to catch and pepper, or, believe me, I'd do that. Just to tack on a marginally related question - would application of equisetum tea be a good preventative for fungus on strawberries? Putting plants into tub with bubblers for a couple of days and then diluting a bit (how much?)? Best, Essie "CIA stands for Capitalism's Invisible Army" Buckminster Fuller Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
Re: Insect peppers
Dear Gil, What potency did you use on your Brown Snails, and in what signs did you burn it. Also could you look through your records and give me a date that you burnt it. Regards James. - Original Message - From: "Gil Robertson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 10:35 AM Subject: Re: Insect peppers > Hi! Hugh, > I am very interested in your comment:- "Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture." > > I am working in a remote area with no one to drop by and help, so in things like making peppers, I am only able to learn that which I can from books and the likes of this list. > > I have had mixed results with peppers. Some are straight Steiner, some are traditional Homoeopathic potencies, some are potenised with a Rae, Pot to Pot instrument and in some cases I have made Rae Cards. My results has been mixed. Some have worked spectacularly, some not at all, while one for Brown Snail actually attracts them and they will eat anything I spray with it. I have been doing the full cremation and there is definitely no carbon present. SO that may be my mistake!! > > My most successful effort was against the Australian Plague Locust. I had a single specimen in Brandy and a couple of photos in a Fact sheet. I made the Rae card with the intent of having the Locust not eat and suffer the consequence. A great contrast to the brown Snail effort. > > Gil > > Hugh Lovel wrote: > > > Dear Essie, > > > > Would it be possible to get a sample of each of your peppers? A gram or two in a tiny ziploc bag would do. And can you determine what species(s) of slug you have? I take it there are several. I would like to send them off to England and have Malcolm Rae cards made. That way we can make up potencies as appropriate to each location. I gather you are using the straight pepper in your broadcaster without potentization. I guess we'll see how that works, but I have a feeling potencies are safer and will work better. > > > > Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture. > > > > As for fungus on strawberries, the old one--two punch involves tieing up the nitrates in the soil with an evening time drench of oak bark (505) and then spraying the foliage with the equisetum the next morning. The oak bark holds back the nitrates from the lime side so the plant is less salty and watery, while the horsetail draws in warmth from the silica side and hardens the plant. > > > > Best, > > Hugh > >
Re: Insect peppers
Dear Hugh and others, We have found after much experimenting that the decomposition method at this stage seems to be the most effective. The decomposition method overcomes the old chestnut of what is the best time to burn. You will find that slugs and snails are the easiest to do. Insect peppers are the easiest to prepare, while the vertebrates are full of contradictions even if burned during Venus in Scorpio. Maybe someone who understands can explain to me the possible effects of Mercury in retrograde. We have had some funny experiences using peppers of vertebrates during Mercury in retrograde. Our long term trials with ashing of serrated tussock has shown that the seed loses it's viability if the peppers are sprayed out on the tussock just before the seed starts to form, and then followed up with another two sprays in close proximity to each other. The use of peppers, without having an elementary skill in dowsing is a recipe for hit or miss use of radionics. The potency used for distribution of a pepper can vary from day to day. Hence the need to dowse the most effective potency. Sincere regards James. From: Hugh Lovel To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 10:12 PM Subject: Re: Insect peppers Dear Essie,Would it be possible to get a sample of each of your peppers? A gram or two in a tiny ziploc bag would do. And can you determine what species(s) of slug you have? I take it there are several. I would like to send them off to England and have Malcolm Rae cards made. That way we can make up potencies as appropriate to each location. I gather you are using the straight pepper in your broadcaster without potentization. I guess we'll see how that works, but I have a feeling potencies are safer and will work better.Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture.As for fungus on strawberries, the old one--two punch involves tieing up the nitrates in the soil with an evening time drench of oak bark (505) and then spraying the foliage with the equisetum the next morning. The oak bark holds back the nitrates from the lime side so the plant is less salty and watery, while the horsetail draws in warmth from the silica side and hardens the plant.Best,Hugh At 09:40 PM 6/24/02 -0400, Allan wrote: Essie - would you mind including a little more 'how to' info on your pepper making?What's your track record like?-AllanAllan -Here's the procedure, as I've done it.Collect as many specimens as you feel necessary. I collected a good 100 slugs, most adolescent, a couple of adults. All in one pass through the potatoes. Probably 50 potato beetles (dead), and maybe 70 potato beetle larvae (from lilies). The count is not exact. First I cooked the slugs. Put them in a small glass saucepan with cover (turned on the stove fan), and cooked them slowly until they were blackened. Then I crunched them up and cooked them some more until they were mostly (not entirely, however - I didn't have quite enough patience) white ash. Then cooled them a bit and put the ash into a small glass vial and put vial into bottom well of field broadcaster (slugs crawl rather than fly - hence bottom well).I followed the same process with the adult potato beetles, but put that vial into the upper well (since they fly).I followed the same process with the larvae, putting that vial into the bottom well. The larvae were shredding my Casa Blanca lilies (no others), and the shredded leaves were covered with what clearly was excrement, with larvae in the middle of the excrement. They definitely eat where they shit. And vice versa.Now, I've previously only peppered with slugs. Five years ago, I did it once and had (truly) an 80 percent reduction in two weeks. The next year I did it again and had an 80-85 percent reduction. Until this year, I was virtually slug-free since then. But this year the potatoes were innundated, with both slugs and adult potato beetles. The lilies were shredded by potato beetle larvae, and I've never had that problem before, ever. My area is low and wet, easily prone to slugs. Also, I used a great deal of leaf mulch this year as well - which apparently served as a "Y'all come" to the slug legions.Now, I made all peppers yesterday. Tonight, on patrol, I found two slugs, one beetle larva, and 11 adult beetles (10 of them copulating, two by two. The odd duck was doing something that could've been self-stimulating, but it was dark, the flashlight was weak, and I felt that the least I could do was to respect his
Re: Insect peppers
Dear Hugh and List members Like everybody else I have had mixed results with peppering, some spectacular, many so -so. The two that have worked the best for me have been decomposed rather than burnt. There is a little passage on this in Steiners book "Burning is the best and fastest way to go. You could also let it decay, but it is difficult to collect the end products of decomposition, although in some ways it might be better" this is about the middle of lecture six. Now I spose I could pretend that I'm clever and this was part of a plan but its the accidental result of slackness and forgetfullness. I gathered some slugs (quite a few) into a bottle of alcohol and, absent minded, left them on the front porch for a couple of months in the sun. When their mates decided to eat all my wifes strawberries and I went looking for the bodies for cremation there was only some brown mucky liquid in the bottle (90 proof spirit so burning this lot is going to be interesting) I just used it as was to make a D8 potency and put that out with a water can - spectacular result!! The slug one worked so well that I decided to try again when we got a few white ants in the back of our house - this time I meant to do it - some termites - these boys are pretty active they ate my 1inch hardwood tomato stakes clean through three times in the one season last year - from a trap box in the yard went into a bottle of water with a bit of solubilised ant dirt from the burrows, put in the sun on the window sill for about a week or so and then potentised up - six different potencies from D8 up to 5mm mixed together and drizzled round once about six weeks ago - this one is looking good at this stage too. These were instrument potencies in both cases so there was no actual substance left the bottles - its not a fungus or disease effect! Sounds crazy I know but it really worked! Cheers all Lloyd Charles
Re: Insect peppers
Hi! Hugh, I am very interested in your comment:- "Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture." I am working in a remote area with no one to drop by and help, so in things like making peppers, I am only able to learn that which I can from books and the likes of this list. I have had mixed results with peppers. Some are straight Steiner, some are traditional Homoeopathic potencies, some are potenised with a Rae, Pot to Pot instrument and in some cases I have made Rae Cards. My results has been mixed. Some have worked spectacularly, some not at all, while one for Brown Snail actually attracts them and they will eat anything I spray with it. I have been doing the full cremation and there is definitely no carbon present. SO that may be my mistake!! My most successful effort was against the Australian Plague Locust. I had a single specimen in Brandy and a couple of photos in a Fact sheet. I made the Rae card with the intent of having the Locust not eat and suffer the consequence. A great contrast to the brown Snail effort. Gil Hugh Lovel wrote: > Dear Essie, > > Would it be possible to get a sample of each of your peppers? A gram or two in a >tiny ziploc bag would do. And can you determine what species(s) of slug you have? I >take it there are several. I would like to send them off to England and have Malcolm >Rae cards made. That way we can make up potencies as appropriate to each location. I >gather you are using the straight pepper in your broadcaster without potentization. I >guess we'll see how that works, but I have a feeling potencies are safer and will >work better. > > Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some >of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of >course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture. > > As for fungus on strawberries, the old one--two punch involves tieing up the >nitrates in the soil with an evening time drench of oak bark (505) and then spraying >the foliage with the equisetum the next morning. The oak bark holds back the nitrates >from the lime side so the plant is less salty and watery, while the horsetail draws >in warmth from the silica side and hardens the plant. > > Best, > Hugh
Re: Insect peppers
Dear Essie, Would it be possible to get a sample of each of your peppers? A gram or two in a tiny ziploc bag would do. And can you determine what species(s) of slug you have? I take it there are several. I would like to send them off to England and have Malcolm Rae cards made. That way we can make up potencies as appropriate to each location. I gather you are using the straight pepper in your broadcaster without potentization. I guess we'll see how that works, but I have a feeling potencies are safer and will work better. Also, it is my belief that you do NOT want to burn everything to ash. You need some of the original carbon framework to have the pattern of that unique species. But, of course, you want to drive off ALL of the moisture and things related to moisture. As for fungus on strawberries, the old one--two punch involves tieing up the nitrates in the soil with an evening time drench of oak bark (505) and then spraying the foliage with the equisetum the next morning. The oak bark holds back the nitrates from the lime side so the plant is less salty and watery, while the horsetail draws in warmth from the silica side and hardens the plant. Best, Hugh At 09:40 PM 6/24/02 -0400, Allan wrote: Essie - would you mind including a little more 'how to' info on your pepper making? What's your track record like? -Allan Allan - Here's the procedure, as I've done it. Collect as many specimens as you feel necessary. I collected a good 100 slugs, most adolescent, a couple of adults. All in one pass through the potatoes. Probably 50 potato beetles (dead), and maybe 70 potato beetle larvae (from lilies). The count is not exact. First I cooked the slugs. Put them in a small glass saucepan with cover (turned on the stove fan), and cooked them slowly until they were blackened. Then I crunched them up and cooked them some more until they were mostly (not entirely, however - I didn't have quite enough patience) white ash. Then cooled them a bit and put the ash into a small glass vial and put vial into bottom well of field broadcaster (slugs crawl rather than fly - hence bottom well). I followed the same process with the adult potato beetles, but put that vial into the upper well (since they fly). I followed the same process with the larvae, putting that vial into the bottom well. The larvae were shredding my Casa Blanca lilies (no others), and the shredded leaves were covered with what clearly was excrement, with larvae in the middle of the excrement. They definitely eat where they shit. And vice versa. Now, I've previously only peppered with slugs. Five years ago, I did it once and had (truly) an 80 percent reduction in two weeks. The next year I did it again and had an 80-85 percent reduction. Until this year, I was virtually slug-free since then. But this year the potatoes were innundated, with both slugs and adult potato beetles. The lilies were shredded by potato beetle larvae, and I've never had that problem before, ever. My area is low and wet, easily prone to slugs. Also, I used a great deal of leaf mulch this year as well - which apparently served as a "Y'all come" to the slug legions. Now, I made all peppers yesterday. Tonight, on patrol, I found two slugs, one beetle larva, and 11 adult beetles (10 of them copulating, two by two. The odd duck was doing something that could've been self-stimulating, but it was dark, the flashlight was weak, and I felt that the least I could do was to respect his/her privacy before squashing him/her. We've had a drastic change in weather since yesterday - from days of rain and drizzle to high pressure with some strong breezes and sun. The weather change definitely could influence the change in population. Stay tuned. I'll report on population levels every few days. Now, I also do have flea beetles and no stinging nettle to make a tea. They are too small to catch and pepper, or, believe me, I'd do that. Just to tack on a marginally related question - would application of equisetum tea be a good preventative for fungus on strawberries? Putting plants into tub with bubblers for a couple of days and then diluting a bit (how much?)? Best, Essie "CIA stands for Capitalism's Invisible Army" Buckminster Fuller Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
Re: Insect peppers
At 09:40 PM 6/24/02 -0400, Allan wrote: Essie - would you mind including a little more 'how to' info on your pepper making? What's your track record like? -Allan Allan - Here's the procedure, as I've done it. Collect as many specimens as you feel necessary. I collected a good 100 slugs, most adolescent, a couple of adults. All in one pass through the potatoes. Probably 50 potato beetles (dead), and maybe 70 potato beetle larvae (from lilies). The count is not exact. First I cooked the slugs. Put them in a small glass saucepan with cover (turned on the stove fan), and cooked them slowly until they were blackened. Then I crunched them up and cooked them some more until they were mostly (not entirely, however - I didn't have quite enough patience) white ash. Then cooled them a bit and put the ash into a small glass vial and put vial into bottom well of field broadcaster (slugs crawl rather than fly - hence bottom well). I followed the same process with the adult potato beetles, but put that vial into the upper well (since they fly). I followed the same process with the larvae, putting that vial into the bottom well. The larvae were shredding my Casa Blanca lilies (no others), and the shredded leaves were covered with what clearly was excrement, with larvae in the middle of the excrement. They definitely eat where they shit. And vice versa. Now, I've previously only peppered with slugs. Five years ago, I did it once and had (truly) an 80 percent reduction in two weeks. The next year I did it again and had an 80-85 percent reduction. Until this year, I was virtually slug-free since then. But this year the potatoes were innundated, with both slugs and adult potato beetles. The lilies were shredded by potato beetle larvae, and I've never had that problem before, ever. My area is low and wet, easily prone to slugs. Also, I used a great deal of leaf mulch this year as well - which apparently served as a "Y'all come" to the slug legions. Now, I made all peppers yesterday. Tonight, on patrol, I found two slugs, one beetle larva, and 11 adult beetles (10 of them copulating, two by two. The odd duck was doing something that could've been self-stimulating, but it was dark, the flashlight was weak, and I felt that the least I could do was to respect his/her privacy before squashing him/her. We've had a drastic change in weather since yesterday - from days of rain and drizzle to high pressure with some strong breezes and sun. The weather change definitely could influence the change in population. Stay tuned. I'll report on population levels every few days. Now, I also do have flea beetles and no stinging nettle to make a tea. They are too small to catch and pepper, or, believe me, I'd do that. Just to tack on a marginally related question - would application of equisetum tea be a good preventative for fungus on strawberries? Putting plants into tub with bubblers for a couple of days and then diluting a bit (how much?)? Best, Essie "CIA stands for Capitalism's Invisible Army" Buckminster Fuller
Re: Insect peppers
Essie - would you mind including a little more 'how to' info on your pepper making? What's your track record like? -Allan
Insect peppers
Well, today I made and installed 3 peppers: slug (bottom well, field broadcaster), adult Colorado potato beetle (upper well, fb), and larvae, Colorado potato beetle (bottom well). The larvae were decimating my lilies, growing up, and relocating to the potatoes. I don't enjoy making peppers, but there's a real insect problem this year, for the first time in 4-5 yrs. We'll see how it goes. 4-5 years ago, when I made a slug pepper, the results were evident within 2 weeks. Stay tuned. Best, Essie
