Ammonia vs. 'Beneficial Nematodes'
mstrpbk
9 years ago
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tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Green vs Browns & Wet vs Dry
Comments (8)All maggots are not created equal. Black Soldier Fly (BSF) maggots are nice to see. The link below explains why, but basically --adults have no mouthparts and do not feed!!! --rarely enter houses anyway, weak fliers (I'd feel weak too, if I never ate...) --larvae discourage/prevent housefly maggots --larvae eat decaying organic matter and manures --they eat so much, so fast that odors are reduced/non-exsistant BSF are also a nice brown color, which I find aesthetically more pleasing than the startling white housefly maggot. :)) Houseflies, as you may know, spit on their food and suck up the liquid, pooping at the same time. They're eager to come inside my house, since a dirty dish is heaven for them. Houseflies, with all this flying, puking/eating/pooping everywhere pick up and spread bacteria and disease. Other questions you had -- Constant urine as moisture certainly will cause a pile to use more browns than if water were used. A cardboard box, yes, is a poor choice for composting on a balcony. I wonder if you are in an apartment complex, where balconies typically overhang the balcony/porch of the downstairs neighbors. I have a frightening mental picture of what might be dripping down there...along with the occassional falling maggots. By all means, get yourself a big gray plastic garbage can or some other container with a good drip pan under it. I applaud your efforts, BTW. I just want you to avoid any hassles with an apartment management team that may be quick to say "Stop that!" at the first complaint. Here is a link that might be useful: Beneficials in the Garden--Black Soldier Fly...See MoreBeneficial nematodes vs. SVB
Comments (1)Too bad diazinon is illegal now. We used to just mix a little bit of the slow release in the soil prior to planting and no SVB problems all summer long. Tilling diatomaceous earth and slow release sevin lawn granules into the soil prior to planting helps quite a bit, though. I have no personal experience with beneficial nematodes, but I put a source link below. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Source for nematodes....See Moreusing ammonia to control root weevil
Comments (6)Steve- I call them "notch bugs". The adult weevil eats notches in camelias, rhodys , aspidistra, lirope and everything else I like. These plants are evergreen around here, and probably for the OP, so the damage remains for years. The larvae eat the roots and crowns of plants, especially strawberries. Probably more of a problem in areas that don't have hard freezes that penetrate several feet down into the soil. We might have perfect weather, but that also brings some special bugs. ;-) You guys don't have to worry about soil termites either. Beneficial nematodes need the soil temp to be over 50 (from what I've heard locally). In the ground they should last a couple years or so, or until they no longer have grubs to eat. I doubt ammonia would do anything to the grubs w/o totally soaking the soil and likely killing/harming the plants. Where I don't use nematodes, I go for the chemicals. Bayer. -Babka...See Morediamemateous earth vs koalin clay vs talc
Comments (2)It is doubtful. There is nothing that works very well on squash vine borer. I think talc would have zero effect on them. Diatomaceous earth likely would have very little effect unless you can make it adhere to the plant. If the DE falls off onto the ground, it will have virtually no effect. The moth lays the eggs on the stems of the plant and they tunnel directly into the plant without traveling much distance on the outside of the stem. I haven't found DE to have much effect on anything except some crawling insects that have to crawl or walk through it on the ground where the sharp edges of the miniscule DE particles slice them up. Kaolin clay is more effective on chewing insects that chew on the outside of plants, so it would have little effect on the borers who work on the inside of the plants. I have kaolin clay and use it to protect some plants from grasshoppers and it works at least as well on the hoppers as all-purpose flour, but is not as hard on the plants as flour is. I think that's because it is in such fine particles and when you mix it with water it doesn't form a thicker paste like flour does. The hope with kaolin clay is that it will keep the borers from tunneling into the stem to begin with, but in research studies, fields treated with kaolin clay did not show a significanct difference in SVB activity. For Squash Vine Borers the most effective "controls" (and I use that word loosely because they are very hard--almost impossibly hard--to control) are to keep the plants very securely covered with floating row cover material. Then, when it is time for pollination, either uncover the plants briefly and hand-pollinate the flowers yourself, or you can uncover them and leave them uncovered, but that starts the SVB clock ticking because they'll find your uncovered plants very quickly. If using floating row cover it must be held tight to the ground around the entire perimeter of the covered area, and you have to plant in an area where you haven't grown squash previously because there might be overwintering cocoons in the ground that could hatch out and leave you with larvae trapped inside your covered row. An alternate way to use floating row cover to protect squash is to cut it into long strips and wrap it around the plant stem to exclude the borer. I think this might succeed somewhat if you keep adding more row cover as the plant grows, but I bet the larvae would find their way inside a stem sooner or later. Some people inject the stems of their plants with either Btk or beneficial nematodes, but I've never seen a scientific study that has examined this method for efficacy and I've heard mixed reports on whether this really works or not. I have moderate to good success by using nylon hoisery to encase the stem of the plant. tTo make this work, I start seeds in small ( 2 or 3 oz.) paper cups with the bottom cut out but you could do it with purchased transplants. You might be able to use it with direct-seeded plants, although it would mean you'd have to dig down in the soil to pull the nylon down around the plant stem after the plant is up and growing. When I transplant the plants into the ground, I take a nylon knee-high with the foot portion cut out so I have just a long tube, and I pull that nylon tube down over the outside of the paper cup and then plant the cup. The top portion of the nylon tube is loosely bunched around the plant stem above ground and extends 2 or 3" below ground. As the plant grows, I pull the nylon tube up higher and higher to protect more of the rapidly enlarging and lengthening stem. In orger to prevent the SVBs from crawling under the nylon and penetrating the stem, I pull the loose nylon to one side of the stem and use a clothespin to hold it tight. (The stem is not in the clothespin--only the nylon is. I've done this with a zip tie, but then you have to cut and toss the zip tie each time you move the stocking up, so I have found a clothespin works better.) As the stem gets larger I readjust how much nylon is bunched up and pulled tight by the clothespin. Using this method I have been able to keep yellow summer squash and zucchini plants alive and producing into late July or early August. Here at our house, unprotected summer squash plants usually bite the dust in June or very early July. With winter squash, I just plant C. moschata types that SVBs don't bother enough to kill if they bother them at all....See Morebishop5
9 years agomstrpbk
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9 years agobrucebanyaihsta
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9 years agostoc zone 6 sweden
9 years agoSteve Massachusetts
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9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
9 years agoSteve Massachusetts
9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
9 years agoSteve Massachusetts
9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
9 years agomstrpbk
9 years agoSteve Massachusetts
9 years agomstrpbk
9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
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9 years agomac48025 ( SE michigan)
9 years agoJon 6a SE MA
9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
9 years agomstrpbk
9 years agomac48025 ( SE michigan)
9 years agoBungalowMonkeys
9 years agoin ny zone5
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