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

From: ericgoodenough <sfo_at_gwi.net>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 01:26:06 -0000

I wonder if all the bees that get booted out of the hive in the fall
(drones, I think) along with the unfortunate ones who perish from a
cold winter might make a good addition to our compost or worm bins?
Seems to me another good source of insects to cultivate bug eating
microbes and perhaps boost chitinase producers?

--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, soilfoodweb_at_a... wrote:
> 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 - 21:09:46 EST

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