RE: [compost_tea] Re: FIRE ANT KILLING PROTOZOA FOUND IN 120 TEXAS COUNTIES

From: Linda Meyer <linda.meyer_at_cadence.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 13:54:07 -0800

Elaine,
 
What about fuzzy racoon scat? If I harvest just the fuzz would that be
good for the compost pile?
 
Linda


________________________________

        From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com [mailto:soilfoodweb_at_aol.com]
        Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 12:24 PM
        To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
        Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: FIRE ANT KILLING PROTOZOA FOUND
IN 120 TEXAS COUNTIES
        
        
        The protozoa involved with the ants are a specific set of - hum,
flagellates, I think - of the genera Nosema.
         
        What you need to do is find an ant mount that has died from such
an infection, and get those dead ants into the compost pile, so you have
that particular set of genera of protozoan species.
         
        So as you go through your yard, or take walks in the woods, keep
your eyes open for insects that have died. The fuzzy ones were killed
by fungi, and if you put these guys in your compost piles, you enhance
that insect-attacking set of organismns. Add a little chitin into your
compost (shrimp shells, dead insects) and you can enhance those species
even more.
         
        If you find dead grasshoppers, that seem to have died for no
apparent reason, you are probably looking at a Nosema infection. Get
those critters into your compst ASAP. ant colonies that suddenly die
out, for no apparent reason (sorry, insecticides don't count here, that
is a clear cause-effect), same story.
         
        From now on, when you take a hike in the woods, you are on a
business trip, right? You are in search of beneficial organisms to put
in your compost......
         
        Elaine Ingham
        President, Soil Foodweb Inc,
        1128 NW 2nd ST., Suite 120
        Corvallis, Oregon
        Soil Foodweb Inc., Australia
        Soil Foodweb Inc., New York
        Soil Foodweb Inc., New Zealand
        Soil Foodweb Inc., The Netherlands
        Soil Foodweb Inc., Mexico
        Board Member, Sustainable Studies Institute, Eugene, OR
        
        "Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will
turn out well,
        but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense,
        no matter how things turn out."
        -- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic

        
________________________________

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Received on Wed Mar 24 2004 - 18:41:58 EST

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