Permaculture Blog

Source: Plant Guild #8: Insectiaries

Oops I missed the other posts. I will have to go back and look for the earlier two or three that I missed. But this one is particularly good from my point of view as it talks about insects and habitat.

For me this picture says it all. Bob

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Pics

Bob

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Bummer. Definitely not native. Actually this is the advantage of a relatively clear swimming pool/pond, a bullfrog can be removed.

I can remove this one from my pond too, after I have used more water for irrigation. I can drain one side completely and put it in the other side.

Californians please do not put red eared sliders, bull frogs, or gambusia (aka mosquitofish) in your pond they are _not_ California pond critters. The first two will eat the native chorus frogs and ducklings. gambusia simply are not appropriate for a Mediterranean climate. They won’t survive well in the winter time. Which is why vector control scatters them around willy nilly. It is unlikely that they will become invasive, but you’re deliberately putting an animal in an environment that it suffers in and cannot do well in. And there are plenty of other options!

Bob

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Scientists have unearthed an early Cambrian fossil that displays the creature’s nervous system. What makes this find significant?

Source: Researchers find ‘exquisite’ 515-million-year-old fossilized nervous system

500
million
years,
half a billion years ago the arthropods were perfecting their nervous systems. The arthropods were perfecting the cell types and structures that form the core of our human nervous system today– and todays insects as well. In fact all animals.

An analogy might be that an insect is a little country farmhouse, and a human is a McMansion. They are both still built with wiring and if you spray them with something that poisons and dissolves copper the little country farmhouse will die first, but I will bet you that the McMansion will not be doing too well.

If you want to poison yourself spray insecticides around.

And I have a rhetorical question for you all. Why do you think that neem oil kills insects.

I have a further observation. There are some insecticides that are mechanical not toxic. bT toxin is one of these mechanical insecticides. The last I knew it was believed that the bT crystals disrupted the insects intestinal track.

Now it is simply inconceivable that a crystal that disrupts an insects digestive system will affect a human being and give them irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) right? Regardless a crystal that affects an insect’s digestive system is somewhat unlikely to have neurological effects in a human in my opinion. But using neurotoxins in insecticides is… insane.

Sustainability has nothing in common with any kind of injustice.

Long ago I looked at some of the initial Sandra Bland information on the Internet. And if you have not seen this youtube I would recommend that you do. https://youtu.be/A0F-MhNLyDo

It is my belief that many of the arguments in that video have some credibility.

A few nights ago I watched something that linked me here… Watch “#SandraBland Was Murdered.
https://youtu.be/nW_b7ferpcc

Again there is some credibility especially revolving around the timestamp.

At the end there is a video of her signatures and I took a screen grab below. I believe that in looking at her middle initial “A” — at the lower right corner of the “A”. Two of the signatures are substantially different then the other 4. I believe that all Americans deserve an honest accounting of that discrepancy.

It is the little things that count.

Bob www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Seems to be missing this year. I think a hawk got it but it might have been an owl or even the bald eagle. But this particular squirrel had learned over four or five years to peel the sweet skin off the kumquat and eat it instead of the sour center.

But this has is caused me to think about Gophers as well, and why gopher poison is designed to fail and is simply a money making scam by the chemical companies praying on your need for instant gratification.

If you kill the adult gopher in a particular area, all the remaining tunnels are open and available for the next juvenile that pops onto the scene. The entire network.

If you teach the adult gophers not to come into your orchard, then the next year it won’t come into your orchard. And the year after, and the year after, and it will defend its territory from the youngsters that don’t know not to come into your orchard.

Stop killing everything you believe is in your way and live with the world my friends

Bob

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Well one pool has not worked out as well as I would have liked.

The pool was fine. The owners just added too many things, and would not leave it alone. Not only was our agreement at the very beginning to minimize additions and changes and especially nothing big without my approval, but I also felt responsible for how it looked.

The last straw was them putting a lot of gravel in the bottom. When I asked about it they first emailed me repeatedly that they hadn’t put _any_ gravel in, that I didn’t know what I was talking about and that I must be mistaken. I’m pretty sure by this time in my life I know what chips of rock look like.

And then finally blaming it on the fish moving a minimum of 10 pounds (probably more like 40) of sharp-edged chips of rock from a pot in the shallow end down to the deepest part of the pool. And in just a week, without losing any in between.

For 20 years my job has been to speak for, and protect the fish first because they can’t speak themselves. And it was definitely not the fishes’ fault in this case :-). And with me it is the little things that count!

if I specifically tell them not to add gravel (And gravel honestly won’t hurt me, or the pool much at all).

And they agree.

And then they deliberately add gravel …

because they want to for some reason–any reason at all, and besides, they think: “it really will not hurt him”, or worse yet “it doesn’t matter if it hurts him it is not us”.

If they do this then in all likelihood… they will also add anything else (including toxins) that they want to, and that _in their opinion_ won’t hurt me. Or…

Think about that phrase “_in their opinion_” my friends.

I simply do not trust their opinion as to what is toxic to me

It’s the little things that count.

Recommendation for all new clients: don’t agree to conditions about not adding stuff without my knowledge , turn around and do it, and then flat out lie to me about it. It is the tiniest bit annoying to me.

Regardless, I have picked up several new projects and here is one already a couple of months old.

I am particularly fond of this one because of the self-cleaning system that I believe is called a Polaris, that runs around and collect leaves.

I am a bit mechanically inclined and I believe that I can maintain the functioning of the polaris even in a naturally filtered pool. I am a microbiologist and I promote biological diversity in systems and believe that I can set up these ecological systems to filter water in swimming pools. So a leaf collection system is not going to “leaf” me with no work to do :-) I amuse myself every once awhile.

Bob

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Due to the constant battle of phytoplankton, the diversity of species in algal blooms is extremely high and, each day, a new dominant species comes out on top.

Source: Microorganisms Battle It Out Daily Within Algal Blooms

Let me suggest to everybody out there that this happens not only in marine environments laughing.

I have dozens of clients and every single one at this point is clear and not green but when I get a new client whose pond is green I have to tell them repeatedly that there are thousands of different species of algae and just because the pond looks green does not mean that it’s not progressing through cycles. (unless the owner keeps changing things and putting everything back several months :-)) My goals are to set up an old growth ecology and we have to get through the weeds first.

A single paragraph in the sweeping legislation could shield the company from costly liability for making the now-banned chemicals known as PCBs.

Source: Monsanto Given Legal Shield in a Chemical Safety Bill

Call me a dreamer, but I wish for a Congress that would help cities with their homeless crises instead of protecting multinational corporations that poison our environment,” said Pete Holmes, the city attorney for Seattle, one of six cities suing Monsanto