This is just too wonderful to believe. To think there is a mechanism set
up so you can actually buy skunk urine in quantity. I hesitate to contemplate
the harvesting system. Reminds me of a case where some drug runners were
sending drugs into the US, concealed in (so said the reporter on NPR) "drums
of bull semen." I guess they thought officials would be uninterested in
opening the drums to check for drugs. I don't know why!
I used to read the gardening group, and a perpetual thread through the
group was how to keep deer out of gardens. They'd use, in different ways,
soap, human hair, human urine, foil or cloth strips on poles, and dung
from large carnivores like lions (available from some zoos or botanical
gardens, I've seen it sold as "Zoo-doo"). I'll add skunk whiz to the list.
But you know, these methods are all really just deterrents. Eventually
either a chance rain or wind will dilute the chemicals, or perhaps you
will encounter a particularly hungry animal, and your tricks will fail
you. To overcome enough hunger or pain or fear, wild critters will overcome
*anything* (seen those films of coyotes chewing their legs off to get
out of steel-jaw traps?). This may be an acceptable risk when growing
cabbages, but for me---if a loss means a prized plant which is hard
to get legally and is rare in the wild---I won't risk that. So I suggest
you just give up the chemical toys and head to the hardware store for some
steel mesh etc. and make a cage or greenhouse to grow your plants in.
Then you can grow your plants and even put out food for the critters if you
want to attract them.
Jan: Your _Drosera_ key is delicious! When will we see the whole thing?!
>Cactus people are not slimey, we're generally 'pricks'
I'm one of the only people on this list to have met Michael, and will
vouch that he is not slimey. Squamous perhaps, mucilaginous even, but not
squamous.
>I do not know how resistant fire ants are to poisons,
>but I suspect that you will have a difficult time
>finding poisons strong enough to kill most (but not all)
>the ants, and which won't kill your plants.`
I think the main problem with these hive insects is killing the queen.
The queens never eat food in the conventional sense. That is, the food
they eat is regurgitated by workers for her pleasure (how lovely). So if
you hit an ant colony with strong poison, the workers that encounter it
will die before feeding the queen. I think termites and bees are the same
way. I think you may just have to isolate the plants that have the ants,
and repot. If you did it on a cold day with gloves on, would that minimize
your stings? I have been stung by fire ants, and also was chased out of
a jungle in mexico by army ants, and know that neither is a beast to be
trifled with. If you manage to kill these ants chemically, DO POST the
details. Even benign ants can do irritating things like raise aphids and
protect them from natural predators, so I'd be most interested in hearing
your results.
Marvin: I'm going to look into the idea of heading down to Oaxaca or
the Yucatan. I ran the idea by my wife, and she was enthusiastic. Does
anyone know the best time to see Pings down there? Presumably the natural
flowering season... If this is the off-season, so much the better.
Barry