David, for fireblight actinovate is not as effective as copper or streptomycin. I have not tried it due to all the studies not rating it highly enough. For your general question.. first step is to figure out precisely what is causing you problems. For the crabapple, fireblight doesn't defoliate, it causes shoots to bend over and look dead. Defoliation is more likely from a bad case of apple scab. The most common cause of defoliation of plums is bacterial spot, but you need an accurate diagnosis before spraying. If its bacterial spot that is your problem, the Japanese plums are no better than the europeans. Its not so hard to get under control once its diagnosed, just spray copper right before leaves appear in spring and just after they fall off in fall. Every disease is different and requires a different treatment, so step one is get an accurate diagnosis. If you can't figure it out on your own feel free to post some pictures here. Even more generally, if you are not planning on spraying much I would not expect much from apples or plums. I would either switch to figs/persimmons/mulberries, or decide you want the apples and plums and are willing to do half a dozen sprays per year. Scott

Here are some care sheets which should help. Note that there are 2 species of these guys, chinese and japanese. I linked a good care sheet for each. You should identify which you have (the links should help). Once you know which is yours, a yahoo search on the scientific name should give you tons of info! http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_pyrrhogaster.shtml http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_pyrrhogaster.shtml

Sahoy: Be sure never to get in the position I am in - ordering 1000 crickets every other week!! I have special 12" tweezers made for picking up crickets. They don't hurt the crickets at all (unless you squeeze too hard!). I only use them to handfeed certain animals, but you could definatly use them to avoid touching the crickets. If I were you, I would go to petsmart once weekly and buy a few dozen crickets. You could keep them in a plastic critter cage and use the tweezers to transfer some to the the frogs' cage daily. When you run out of crickers, you could take a day to clean the cage with hot water and then re-stock your supply. I honestly don't know why everyone makes such a big deal about the crickets. Yeah, they're gross, but it's not rocket science. In my experience, you just need to keep the crickets alive in their cage with plenty of food and water, and then clean and re-stock the cage when you run out. It's that simple. BTW, my firebelly eats up 3/4th inch crickets, has no UV light, and is has been going on strong for 5 years now.

I have completed my stain testing on my fire and ice sample. I put two coats of sealer on and let them dry for 27 hours. I applied one strip of Stonetech Heavy Duty Sealer and another strip with Stonetech Rich Color Enhancer. I know nothing about sealers, but I like the Stonetech products because they are water based, don't smell chemically (hardly smell at all), and I have had good results with the enhancer version on our slate fireplace surround. The enhancer version was not the best choice for sealing in a kitchen, but I had some already, so I tested it. They make a heavy duty enhancer version which is what I will use if I enhance. Both of them say that they last 3 to 5 years and are easy to apply. We can't see the non-enhanced strip at all. I tested veg oil, mustard, curry powder in oil, coffee, margarine, spaghetti sauce and balsamic vinegar on both sealers. I put the stains on the two lightest pieces of quartzite. The only obvious stain was the curry in oil on the enhanced sealer. The mustard also shows a tiny bit on the enhanced sealer, but it's barely noticeable. I think the mustard and curry left a little smudge on the heavy duty sealer, but I'm not sure, and it's definitely not obvious. It just looks like a natural part of the stone. My DH was really skeptical about putting this back splash behind the stove, but both of us are now convinced that it will cleaning it not be a problem.