When I visit my daughter in Tampa, we visit a Florida Natives Nursery out in the country from Sarasota on Myakka Road. I tried to get their plant list from their web site, but when I clicked on it, it kept bringing me back to the home page. You could call them and see how well stocked they are with passionvines. I'm surprised zebra longwings will use the red-flowering types of passionves - I thought they were toxic to ZLs as well as gulf frits. I'm quite sure the plants at this nursery are not sprayed, nor would they likely use systemics. And they could give you some good advice about where to plant them. I'm not familiar with Florida conditions, and I've never had the pleasure of raising zebras, just gulf frits. If this nursery is out of passionvines, you could make a trip to Mail Order Natives in Lee, Florida in the panhandle (toward the eastern part) and get P. incarnata, which I know all longwings thrive on. I'd call Amy first, though, and be sure she's got some for sale. Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Natives Nursery

While no one seems to want to hear the truth of the matter, the plumber is correct, the Plumbing codes now require all above grade metal piping, be it water, gas, air, central vacuum or heating fuel lines. to be bonded to the house electrical grounding system, and the requirement has absolutely nothing to do with the NEC electrical grounding requirements or electrolosys. From the later part of the 19th century up to the early 50's galvanized iron or lead pipe was the only material available for water supply lines. By the late 40's to early 50's there was a strong trend to use copper pipe in place of galvanized iron, but in either case it was still a direct buried metal pipe. In those days the obvious choice for electrical grounding was the water line, and in fact, not only was the house electrical systems grounded to the water lines, in some regions lightning rods were also grounded to the water lines. In those days it was also common to wire a house 2 wire circuitry which had no common conductor and in instances when a ground was required they simply ran a ground wire from the appliance to the nearest water pipe. In the mid to late 50's they started using polyethylene pipe (PE) or Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe. It was soon realized that the plastic piping material no longer provided an adequate means of grounding so the NEC was amended to require all structures to have a driven grounding rod, or grounding to rebar in the footer as was mentioned by Brickeye above, and in instances where there was a metal water line the house electrical ground was to also be bonded to the water line. About that same time they began using PVC pipe for water distribution lines within the structure, therefore they could no longer rely upon grounding appliances to the nearest water line as had been done previously, therefore the NEC was again amended requiring the use of AWG14-2WG or AWG12-2-WG cables and three prong plugs, thus the entire house electrical system has its own independent grounding system and no longer relied upon the water lines. While we do still occasionally see a galvanized iron water supply line the codes now require that all direct buried galvanized iron pipe must be factory wrapped and all joints must be field wrapped to an equivalent level of protection, thus there is no direct contact between the galvanized iron pipe and the soil, hence the pipe will not provide any grounding. Some local codes still require copper pipe for water supply lines but as a rule, due to the price of copper it is very rare that we see a copper water supply line. Keep in mind that the NEC only requires bonding to the water supply line when there is 10' or more of direct buried metal pipe. In instances where the water supply line is made or PVC, Polyethylene or PEX there is no requirement in the electrical code to bond the pipe, as a consequence there have been many instances where an electric water heater, pump, electric solenoid valve or other electrically operated device has short circuited and energized the metal piping throughout the house. One could make the argument that this cannot happen because the NEC requires all of those devices to be bonded through the ground wire on the electrical supply cable, but in the real world we all know that many people tend to disregard connecting that silly unnecessary green wire therefore in the event that particular device fails your entire water distribution system can become energized. God forbid you should be standing in the shower and reach up and touch an energized shower head. I wish i had a dollar for every time I have went into a basement or crawlspace and grabbed a copper pipe and got the living hell zapped out of me. This problem is prevalent enough today that in the apprenticeship training we stress that everyone in the trade should carry a single probe voltage sensor and test all metal piping systems before actually touching them. Thus the Plumbing codes have now been amended making it not only the electricians job, but also the plumbers job to insure that all above grade metal piping MUST BE BONDED to the house electrical grounding system. Will bonding the pipe to the house ground improve the house electrical ground? Probably not. Will it retard electrolysis? NO. Could it save your life? Absolutely yes. Now for the question of pin holes. Buss driver asked the important question here. If the water is supplied from a municipal water source the likelihood of pin hole developing from water quality is slim to none because the Federal standards for municipal water treatment require that they treat acidic water to have a neutral PH. Far too often what is attributed to pinholes is in fact pipe wall erosion because the line is undersized and the velocity of flow exceeds the maximum allowable flow rate of 8ft/sec.

All 3 plumbers said they checked the vent stacks. One just looked w/ a flashlight; the others sealed the stacks on the roof w/ duct tape and did a peppermint oil test, as well as did a visual inspection from both the attic and the roof. I suppose they could have missed something, but I don't know how else they could check. Because there's no odor in the enclosed water closet, the plumbers don't think that the wax ring on the toilet is the culprit. When asked, one plumber said it wouldn't hurt to run a bead of silicone caulk around the joints in the pipe beneath the garden tub. I'm going to ask dh to try that, but it probably will be next weekend before he can do it. Taping plastic sheeting to try to isolate the problem sounds like a good idea. Would it be okay to tape over the tub's overflow cover & drain as well as around the access panel? Finally, when the plumbers removed the access panel, I could see the slab foundation had an opening about a foot square where the tub drain pipe went down to join the main drain. It looked like loose grey insulation filled the hole (along with some construction debris.) I don't know if there's any sort of plastic barrier, but I sure hope so. This area has major radon problems (& we do have a radon vent inside a wall in the center of the house.) While radon is odorless, now I'm wondering about other gases seeping up through that opening.

I am beginning to suspect that it is a dead critter somewhere that we can't see. The smell has changed and it's not as strong and it's confined to the one bathroom on the lower level. Drains are not dry and don't smell, I cleaned everything with bleach, removed toilet and put new wax ring on, ran water down the vent stack, and made sure there was nothing wet under the sink cabinet. I took the cover off of the exhaust vent on the outside of the house and there was nothing in there as far as I could see. I have no idea how to see past where the vent bends down to the fan. If it's something dead that I can't get to I have no idea how long it will smell but we have out of town guest coming in a few weeks and I would really like to have the use of this bathroom.