The aphid mummies do look very similar, enough that I would say that's what I think they are. Thanks for the help ID'ing those. I'm finding that most of my squash/melons/beans to have a lot is silvery flake smutsch on the underside of the leaves. And if I look very close I see a lot of little dark dots. From what I've seen online those are the "bite" marks of sucking insects. While I see a lot of lady bugs in the garden I'm not sure they're keeping up and my problem may soon get out of hand. Can anyone recommend a brand of "safer" pesticide I can get from somewhere like Lowe's or Home Depot? A pyrethrin pesticide right? I have some of the synthetic pyrethrin pesticides around. Cypermethrin as well as some Bifenthrin that I use around the outside of the house and cinder block walls to keep those total &*#&$*! bark scorpions at bay. I honestly hope nobody EVER encounters one of those buggers. Just imagine sticking your foot into a fire and holding it there for 8 hours while your whole body twitches and someone electrocutes you... sorry a little off topic.

ajk23 The one effort of work I allow myself on behalf of vermicomposting is shake, shake, shake sifting out as yet uncomposted bedding from the vermicopost or vermicastings. To accomplish this I let the bin dry out a bit and give it a bit extra time. Then I scoop it into a ¼ inch mesh container or anything at all similar. When it is a bit dry the vermicastings easily shake right into a container leaving only the uncomposted larger bits of egg carton or cardboard. This is easily dumped right back on top of the bin. The bin loves this. The new food additions are inoculated with great wee beasties to work for you. Hummersteve “I have holes drilled in these bins bottoms to look the same as factory towers” We address the mail to these worms as .wormfactory and the worms seem not at all the wiser. Plus worm smart Hummersteve has lots more $$$ not invested in worm factories. Sbryce The conveyors system sounds real cool. Jasdip “naturally crawl down to get away from the light” yup, yup. Chuckiebtoo "worm out" the less desirable...ahem... "segments" of the herd” You are 100% back now. “lazy, sickly, mentally-deranged worms left to wallow” 101% Boukmn “w/o guilt” First time I have heard of that qualification. I think it is apt. Your worm harvester solution may be revolutionary. I do not think I have heard of similar before. Putting your idea here will be a test drive for it. Posters here will have more concern for the well-being of the worms whereas others may just look at them as livestock. My thoughts, for free, mind you, are if anything is needed to make the worms leave then their job there was not really done yet. Or the worms would all be gone. Secondly the high value not in the castings but in the unhatched unable to escape the heat cocoons. Time for them to hatch, refine the castings, the adults prepared it perfectly for baby worms, and for the worms to follow the adults is needed. Time is free. Time is expensive. Is this valuable asset of baby worms being tossed away? On the other hand your post was verbally skilled enough to write advertising copy that would effectively make these valid points null and void and earn big bucks. Unlike the worm bin sellers could you please at least include well written instructions so those of us here do not have to spend a zillion hours fixing up things due to crap instructions? “On a larger scale it is easy to see how using sub-litter heat in this way could make a commercial vermicomposting operation more profitable.” Profitable yes. But would it really be vermicastings or just compost a worm glanced at sideways? Some might say true vermicastings the worms gave their all and died in. Niivek With that Texas tea, he will have grandma in her rocker tied to the top of the SUV in no time. pz2vn9 Yes I either just dump my worms back on top of the bin along with some safe material or start a new bin. Boukmn “two undesirable features:” “1. They are inefficient and take several days to weeks to work.” Well that depends upon who is doing the work. I do not want to spend one minute even setting up a harvesting apparatus or spend $ of electricity to do my work for me. I prefer to spend nontaxable time to let the worms self-harvest. They know when it is time. I’m not a worm. I do not know when it is time to move to greener pastures. It is a bit like kicking Mother Nature in the butt and saying Thanks, your job here is done now. “2. They always leave some live worms behind in the castings to die.” Worms die. We die. But cocoons survive to live another day. In your method, not so much. The seed stock is fried. Not even eaten by another creature. Just left dead in the product. Eventually rot will do its job and the product will self-cleanse. That will take access to oxygen. That will take… … … time. It’s not nice to fool… An advantage to the "sub-litter heat" is to encourage the cocoons to hatch and it also encourage any random composted seed to sprout in the bin which is good instead of in the garden or seed starting medium. So the idea is good. Maybe for different reasons. On the other hand I do think you have the knack to sell stuff. Californy is the place you ought to be.

For those following that have not seen her new post; link is below. Posted by emeraldisle624 (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 18:34 Hi everyone, I know I haven't posted much lately but I am here at least once a week seeing what you are all up to. I feel like I have been wishing the days away, trying to keep my mind busy and letting my body and medicine do it's thing. It's been a long 7 months since the endometrial cancer was first diagnosed. I had my 3rd and final d&c last week at MGH in Boston. Everything about the procedure went like clockwork, unlike the last time. I was the FIRST patient allowed into pre-op in what seemed like hundreds that showed up at 5:30am. The lobby at MGH was seriously like a bus terminal, never seen anything like it. I wasn't the first one to show up nor was I the first one to see the people in the surgery check-in lobby but somehow I got to be the first sent down to the nurses in pre-op and get a room/prepped for surgery (everyone else had been told to take a seat and they'd be called soon). Then I was the first one wheeled to surgery and then the first one discharged! I swear God was holding my hand and making things as easy for me as possible, I had an aura-type feeling about me all day. If it was just my imagination, it's ok I'll take it! I never saw or talked to my doctor, I think it was because everything was on schedule (or maybe even a bit early as my husband got the call at 8:30am that I was on my way to recovery) and they had me knocked out when she arrived. Breezed through recovery, out in record time just to go home and wait 7-10 days for the results. I had such anxiety leading up the surgery that my whole body hurt. I swear I hurt even more in this past week waiting, like I tensed up while sleeping or something. I didn't feel too stressed during the day while awake as I have been pretty good at going with the flow and trying to put my trust in having everything work out the way it's destined to. Since tomorrow is day "7" of the 7-10 days I was going to email the nurse and ask if any results were available yet. She knows I am anxious and that I would be waiting every last minute. Depending on the results, I'd either be scheduling an appointment with the fertility specialist or to have my inevitable hysterectomy. I got a call this afternoon that said "blocked" on my cell phone. My stomach dropped as I knew who it was going to be, the doctor or the nurse with my results. I just wanted to update you all that I will be calling my FERTILITY SPECIALIST to make an appointment to get in there as soon as I can for the next step. All of the pathology came back with no malignancy found! I even had her email me a copy of the report because I was so afraid that she called the wrong person and was giving me someone else's information! I have it in black and white, NO MALIGNANCY FOUND, in 2 different places next to my name! I of course couldn't stop crying and I was waiting for my husband to get home. He got home and the dog ran outside with him. He's getting the mail, chasing the dog, all these things while I am just patiently waiting for him to come in. And I told him the doctor's office called and quickly went to add that the cancer was gone, I am to stop my meds and get in touch with the fertility doctor tomorrow. I felt like I was dreaming. I thanked God so much for answering all the prayers that were said for me and for giving me this opportunity. I still have a long road ahead of me and there are absolutely no guarantees of anything. But I am going to try my hardest to make our dreams come true. I am so very thankful and humbled by everyone in my life (online and in person) who have reached out to me and helped me more than they will ever know. Please continue to keep me in your prayers, I hope there is a miracle in the making. I am on a short timeline and I should have a better idea after seeing the fertility doctor again soon. (I think the meds have to be out of my system 30 days but I don't recall exactly.) Sorry for the long post, I didn't want to leave a word out in case this and my other posts ever help someone else. I hope you are all doing well and please know I think of you all often. Your prayers and healing messages changed my life and today is living proof of that. I am by no means cured of cancer, in case anyone just diagnosed finds this thread by googling or whatever. The only thing that happened is the medicine counteracted the hormones and, in my fancy medical terms, chased the cancer cells down and ate them. So, slowly but surely, since I am no longer taking the hormones, the cancer will slowly grow back and there is no way to know how fast or slow that could happen which is why time is of the essence to get pregnant now. When/if I get pregnant, my body will naturally make huge doses of that missing hormone and actually protect me from the cancer during pregnancy. I will have to have a hysterectomy within a few months or after pregnancy no matter what due to the cancer risk. I can't grasp how remarkable our bodies are. Thank you again. emeraldisle624 Here is a link that might be useful: Just a quick update!

OK..that's a easy fix, happens allot, tie the side branch, [active growing] toward the dead center, but not to break it. Next year cut the dead branch off. Might need some fertilizer.