Permaculture Blog

Massive die-offs of honeybees have taken place in Central Valley almond groves. While insecticides and fungicides aren’t harmful to bees on their own, an airborne mixture is lethal.

Source: Study: Pesticide Mixture the Culprit in Almond Grove Bee Die-Offs

This is not the best news article on the study, but it is the first one I could get to scan into my blog. (Let that be a note to news outlets who want so badly to have their advertising viewed but block fair use copy/ paste/ comments. Sheesh)

Anyway I believe that this is an important story because it brings up and illustrates a point that I have worried about for several years. We all know that medicines can interact and yet we do very, very little to study how the chemicals that we have designed to be toxic interact. Many people have commented that I tend to rail against pesticides (possibly too much) :-)

But here is a suggestion for individual homeowners; don’t use multiple types of pesticides. If one doesn’t work for you and you really want to do something for the environment– instead of buying a Prius, do this one simple thing– don’t let your mad desire for instant gratification run away with you; discontinue the first pesticide for several months to allow it to break down before starting to use a different type of toxin.

Or even better yet try to make sure of what you’re trying to kill. Hire one of these neighborhood kids who know all sorts of computers thingies. To set up a motion detector camera to video tape whatever is eating your garden. Wouldn’t that be fun :-)

Best to you all

Foreign ministry says China is ‘ready to work with the international community to protect wildlife and curb international trade’.

Source: Beijing backs jail term for Chinese ‘Ivory Queen’ Yang Fenglan in Tanzania

The butchering of elephants for their Ivory is obscene. China is finally making strides to stop it.

The explicit condemnation of Yang’s actions from Chinese authorities is a sign of Beijing’s increased public efforts to clamp down on the illegal trade on the global stage.

Elephants like sperm whales have spindle cells too.

Think about it.☺

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported this week that in 2018 it issued so-called “emergency” approvals to spray sulfoxaflor—an insecticide the agency considers “very highly toxic” to bees—on more than 16 million acres of crops known to attract bees.

Source: Trump EPA OKs ‘Emergency’ to Dump Bee-Killing Pesticide on 16 Million Acres

Realize that …

Of the 18 states where the approvals were granted for sorghum and cotton crops, 12 have been given the approvals for at least four consecutive years for the same “emergency.”

A four-year emergency! Shaking my head but that means that most if not all the “emergency” approvals were started during the Obama Administration.
And here is some great info from snopes about the lawsuits filed against the EPA for poor regulation policy and backdoor approval mechanisms for overly toxic pesticides snopes bee info.

Just like the children in cages at the border do not blame one or the other political side….
_blame both!_ The money the chemical companies pour into paying off politicians and scientists is amazing. This is the same problem with the “Organic” label. If the farmer has applied for a waiver they can spray non_organic pesticides all over the crop …. and _still call_ it Organic.

Best
PS has this is getting a little long but from Wikipedia the IUPAC name for sulfoxaflor is

[Methyl(oxo){1-[6-(trifluoromethyl)-3-pyridyl]ethyl}-λ6-sulfanylidene]cyanamide

You’re worried about fluoride in your drinking water?? laughing.
The cyanide couldn’t possibly hurt anyone! laughing.
And it was designed as an insect neurotoxin which …. Couldn’t possibly hurt a human.laughing.

A team of scientists from Germany’s University of Tübingen has discovered a novel and unusual sugar molecule that shows great potential as a natural herbicide. It is harmless to animals and humans but can effectively disrupt the growth of various plants and microorganisms.

Source: Promising sugar-based natural herbicide targets same pathway as glyphosate

Arrrrggggggggg. Many microorganisms produce toxins. Staphylococcus necrotizing fasciitis bacteria produce toxins that destroy human tissue. It’s natural but you wouldn’t want to use it on everyone. Some bacteria can degrade Mercury and produce mercury vapor. They _produce mercury vapor_.
The mercury vapor is “natural”. Neem oil is natural–it kills _everything_ –but it is natural. People, if it kills living organisms there is a reason for it. And that reason may not be good for us.

There are 20,000 approved pesticides in the USA. Do you think that is enough? Maybe we should get it down to where we have any hope of identifying dangerous and harmful cross reactions. Something on the order of 1000 toxic biocides might be enough you think? Maybe we could take one _off_ the aproved list before adding a new one.

You think?
Maybe something that kills many plants _and_ bacteria — think soil food web- is not the best idea for the next glyphosate relplacement.

You think?

And just because some genius in a white lab coat tells you it is safe because it “is natural” maybe you should be worried.

The best to those of you in Germany.

Wildlife officials in Tennessee are implementing an emergency plan after at least 13 cases of chronic wasting disease were discovered in deer.

Source: Deer disease found in Tennessee counties

I realize that I have “Spread the Good News” and “Permaculture” at the bottom of each of these posts. And I have been criticized for being on the negative side with things. But I also believe that information is not always positive. And I may post too much on pesticides but that’s just my personal focus.

The disease mentioned above is mad cow disease but in deer. It was introduced to deer in cattle feed that was put out to help the deer survive harsh winters. It is a prion disease and we know very little about it. About how it is spread, about what the inoculating dose is, about the time required for it to manifest symptoms, about how similar it is in many ways to alzheimer’s disease, etc etc. It is particularly bad up in the Midwest and that’s where most of the news articles I look for come from. This one is as far south as Tennessee.

Some of you with kids who are bright, intelligent, and interested in biology –encourage them to go into research on prion diseases. They will be increasing in severity in the next few years.
And if you live in the midwest or in Tennessee now. I might think hard before eating wild venison unless you think that evolution should not be taught in public schools :-)

Source: New discovery pushes origin of feathers back by 70 million years

Have I mentioned that I love dinosaurs ☺
http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/wordpress/?s=Dinosaur

PuraVidaAquatic.com (310)429-8477

Global team of scientists find ecosystem below earth that is twice the size of world’s oceans

Source: Scientists identify vast underground ecosystem containing billions of micro-organisms

There is just so much we don’t know about microbial ecology. Many people now know that the microbes on us and in us outnumber our own cells nearly 50 to 1 but they don’t translate that knowledge into the realization that all other animals are most likely similar and have incredibly complex microflora as well. All the animals that you believe should be protected bats, owls, hummingbirds, compost worms, bees, even black soldier flies and their larvae :-). Most of the microbes in these systems are in close contact with their neighbors and the other organisms in their environment. They often form what are referred to as biofilms. Biology is awesome!

“If we could knock down viruses in honey bee colonies, it could lead to greater health in other pollinators.”

Source: A new study shows how mushrooms could save bees. Yes, mushrooms.

Cool article, cool idea from a great guy. It is a positive action rather than a negative one (killing things that you don’t like). Some of us could buy an extract to put out for the wild bees :-)

He or she hopped in and out of my filters several times while I watched! I’m such a voyeur. laughing. Shaking its feathers dry as it got out. We have had a lot of wind and dust in the last couple of days. Santa Ana winds. My car is covered in dust and needs a bath too :-) Happy to provide non-toxic algaecide free water for this particular bird’s feathers.

Think about this my friends: anything that’s in the water that a bird bathes in stays with the bird. When the bird gets out it doesn’t towel off. It dries out which concentrates any toxins that were in the water. The bird then grooms and ingest the toxins or the toxins enter its skin.

Why wouldn’t you want to filter your pool or pond in a way that looks good and benefits animals? — Instead of toxic chemicals and a big plastic canister?

Just a thought.
😉