~ Bug Me! Ladybug Introduction House ~
Ever get tired of being bugged by the bugs? The Dali Lama says it all starts with annoyance and that if we just simply love, everything would be great. Could be it's all in the approach and our fighting, fighting itself empowering the war ~ like "the terrorist". What if a war with insects only empowers them and that war itself doesn't work. What if we try empowering Nature and our insects. We can never win an insect war.
Fossil remains show that when the first ancient reptiles crawled outta the oceans they met highly developed dragonflies with 6 foot wing spans and 3 foot ants already working in colonies. This early gator-like critters had no lateral movement and chemical reactions in their heads instead of brains. Not flying or social for sure. Mammals show up much much later ~ we seem a sort of Mother Nature's after thought with our simple 36 paired chromosomes. Chromosome number and complexity develop over time and today, insects have hundreds of chromosomes and hundreds of each of those. Say some insect has 500 chromosomes. It might have 10 of the first one, 30 of the next, 300 of the next, one of the next, 600 of the next, one of the next and so on. Think mutation and realize that they can completely change from one generation to the next on any traits where they have just one chromosome. Where they have hundreds ~ they have hundreds of genetic choices in their hundreds of offspring. Some have more chromosomes for a trait than offspring. This is called genetic potential. Humans and mammals have no such genetic potential within one generation.
I just love all that Cleopatra shared with Western culture. The ancient Egyptians were the largest wheat farmer the world has ever know AND the most successful for over 14,000 years. Just living in Florida for 5 years I've learned how grain bugs love the tropics and note how African bugs eat Florida bugs before breakfast where they have been accidentally introduced!!! Do U really think the Egyptians developed a whole religion around beetles/scarabs just because they thought they were cute? Or were the world's most successful organic wheat farmers on to something? They loved and worshiped a ladybug cousin, a mealy bug predator! Well Duh! U see, wheat was free in Egypt being holy from Ra. It was nurtured, loved and empowered in everyway by everyone. Small beetles laid their eggs in the fields and hatched in storage. When their silos were emptied, where the most beautiful wheat had been stored were left these cute little happy healthy beetles! They meant life to them and they worshiped Life. When Cleopatra was forced to increase her wheat shipments to Rome she included in the contract that the wheat must never be sold and that her bugs had to be respected. This is the origin of welfare and our love of the ladybug today!
Beetles (Coleoptera) are the largest order of insects and the most diverse. There are 6,000 species of ladybugs (coccinellidae) with 98 in Florida, 16 species being commercially sold in Florida. They range from neon blue to beige to black. Only one is red with black spots. The orange 7 spotted ladybug (aphids) and the tiny black with 2 red dots, twice stabbbed ladybugs (fruit scales) are two of our most important Florida natives. Convergence ladybugs are broad range California imports eating most garden pest. And why do we call them ladybugs? Well, Europe continued to respect Cleo's scarabs up until the Protestant Reformation where they were damned as idolatry and heresy. The name was changed to honor Queen Mary, or Bloody Mary for her love of folks on pikes. She is the Lady of ladybugs and was much hated. The ladybirds, as they are called in England, continued to be much loved and respected becoming the subject of much pro-environmental, anti-Queen Mary art. Today's ladybug art does conjure quite a different emotion from our cockroach/termite ads. Just ask John Lennon or Volkswagon!
The Romans had much pro-beetle art and named them Coleo-ptera or armored wing, a name showing great respect from a warrior people . Today that armored wing has become an issue. Much beetle armor will no longer absorb pesticides. The chemical companies never foresaw this. They assumed that they could alway make something worse that would always kill more and more! And this is what I'm agreeing with here ~ that "they" can always make something worse with such an attitude. What works? What's easy? Why not let the insect eat the insects ~ like they have always done and are naturally designed to do? Put their genetics to work for us instead of against us. Make friends with them. Take one to lunch. Any kinda critter will stay around if you feed them!
Bug Me! is an insect introductory program designed with an integrated sustainability approach. We must not only start working together as communities but integrating into and sustaining nature. Nature MUST take the lead at this point. The Chinese used/use water and flooding to control insects/weeds/drought in rice. Masters of integrated sustainable agriculture and biological control, we might look to some of their more ancient devices ~ putting pottery snake holders in their springs to give their rodent eating water guards a nice home or the bee hive giving the honey makers a nice manageable place to thrive. Management as opposed to pretensive domination with hate and kill could work. The Bug Me! bug house is made of cypress and can be reused. Get ur neighbors involved! It's a good way to meet all of them and start building an integrated sustainable community built to nurture Nature.
Bug Me! come with house (4"x4"), canopy, a prepaid insect order form postage included, 3 cups of insect diet, water bowl and instructions for $29.95. Pint of insects is divided into 3 parts and introduced every 2 weeks. Keep ladybugs in refrigerator until use.
Contact Pat High at 386-546-6554 or email [email protected]. Check www.geocities.com/pmhigh for updates!
Blessings
One beautiful afternoon while chasing Florida bugs with my garden sprayer I began laughing at my absurd sillyness. "A wise wytch would be raising the bugs," a mosquito swam screamed in both my ears at once! Florida insects are so incredible! I remembered how most all insects spend some portion of their life in the soil and about soil nematodes. I wondered if other Florida folk might want a simpler bug reality. (There are 30 varieties that eat fleas, for example.) I called UF and they got totally excited! Wendy Wilbur with the Master Garden Program is going to help me with Florida retail marketing and UF Extension with wholesale. Anyone can apply nematodes with a ordinary garden sprayer ~ spraying the soil. Wanna know why I love nematodes and think they are the finest Christmas present of all?
Nematodes are predatory self fertilizing hermaphrodites (females) that change to ordinary female and males when stressed (with ordinary female X male reproduction). Stressed means alotta food or a challenge. They can either keep themselves genetically stable in their normal state as self fertilizing hermaphrodites or out produce most anything on the planet in terms of bulk mass within just a few days using heterosexual reproduction. They are considered poisonous worms but really they kill by injecting poisonous bacteria into a victim. A fly can be knocked outta the air in 3 seconds with this early form of snake venom! Every human has nematodes, in fact, untold billions. They are crawling through every organ of your body right now! Your brain, liver, heart, etc.! Next to viruses, bacteria and algae, these critters are the most abundant life form on earth. Microscopic liver/brain flukes to 8 inch doggie heart worms are common types. There are 500,000 in any teaspoon of soil on Earth!
Nematodes are alot like mollusk in that they are mostly massive labia and a way to feed it (remember my article "Grylz Make Pearlz"). These massive labia have hooks that latch onto prey injecting them with poisonous phosphorescent bacteria. Then the nematodes suck out the liquefied insides leaving a perfect mummy! Human nematodes are parasites and do lots of destructive things but at some point most latch on, inject poison, suck continuing to inject poison and suck. These poisons give a "speed" effect to their victims ~ while deplete them. All are fascinating very diverse life forms. Microscopic soil nematodes migrate at 3 miles per year! In general, nematodes control the population growth of most everything from trees to grass, from fish to bugs to birds. They are extremely species specific and I am going to be raising only 5 different native soil types. These Little Warriors will control most any insect population in Florida very rapidly then turn back to and hang out as peaceful hermaphrodites ~ until populations get outta control again ~ sorta like Happily Ever After ~ sorta like.
Contact Pat High at [email protected] or 386-546-6554 for upcoming workshops, info and nematodes. Apply nematodes in March and April ~ Good and natural for any soil or garden!
~ Bug Me! Ladybug Introduction House ~
