Pesticides, alternatives to

[Michaelangelica]

De-Bugging Your Food
A Vacuum Alternative to Pesticides for Microbiology Solution

January 1, 2007 — A physical chemist has developed a new technique for ridding harvested produce of insect pests and microorganisms without using pesticides such as methyl bromide. The technique, called Metabolic Stress Disinfection and Disinfestation, suffocates pests by exposing them to cycles of vacuum and pressurized carbon dioxide. Treatment chambers could be easy to develop on a large enough scale for farmers to use.

This is an article and a video.
Just about everything organic (dried herbs spices etc) imported to Australia is treated with methyl bromide or phosphereine (sp?) (in country of origin)

[freeztar]

I've read of some sewage treatment plants that use gravity to purify the sewage. They have very tall elevator towers that lift the sewage up high and then drop it down a chute. The fall kills all the microorganisms.

Perhaps it could be used for food as well. (a different chute of course)

[Michaelangelica]

THE SCIENCE SHOW

A long running highly regarded ABC radio programme

The first interview this week was on sub-acute doses of pesticides and human fertility ( also tires?). Five minutes worth a listen. Especially if you want to have children
Science Show
Latest Programs
Saturday 03 November 2007

Listen Now - 03112007 | Download Audio - 03112007

* 00:00: Chemicals in the environment reduce egg viability

[Michaelangelica]

Alittle off topic but agood reason to keep going

PESTICIDES MAY BE HIDDEN DANGER TO CHILD IQ
Household pesticides may cause some of the intellectual development problems in children previously associated with lead, an Australian toxicologist says.

Pesticides may be hidden danger to child IQ (ABC Science Online)

[InfiniteNow]

Pesticides may also be the primary reason for colony collapse disorder in honey bees.

It seems that we use this one particular pesicide from Bayer on our plants.

This pesicide is known to cause nervous system and perceptual disorders.

Bees pollenate the plants, and come back to the hive with the messed up nervous systems (after time, mind you).

They start giving bad directions to the other bees.

They start getting lost, and no longer return to the hive (no more "Bee-line" for them...)

They start dying, as well as the hives.


Yay, pesticides! Give me P! E! S! T! I! C! D! E! ... What's that spell? Collapse of the food chain!!!!

[Michaelangelica]

Interesting
That site is still up. Why?
So it was banned in France for this reason 8 years ago and Bayer Germany kept selling it in the USA?
I hope the USA bee keepers and others file a class suit that rips right into them
Totally amoral and irresponsible
Imidacloprid Pesticide Most Likely Cause of Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder, CA Use Up 35 times! - Democratic Underground
Washington City Paper: Cover Story: Buzz Kill

[InfiniteNow]

I dunno, man. I think part of it is that we're so busy shouting about how intelligent we are that we have no time left to prove or act like it.

[Michaelangelica]

From parasite to saviour: bacteria breakthrough at the University of Melbourne

[ Research Review 0307 : ]

By Nerrisa Hannink

Bacteria that commonly infect insects have evolved from parasites to being a fertility aid. The bacteria could eventually be targeted as an option for pest control in order to kill common human disease carriers such as mosquitoes.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne have followed the evolution of Wolbachia bacteria and found that they have rapidly changed from being parasitic and therefore detrimental to their insect host, to engaging in a mutualistic relationship where both bacteria and insect benefit because the insects gain enhanced fertility.

Professor Ary Hoffmann and Dr Andrew Weeks from the Department of Genetics at the University of Melbourne have used the Californian fruit fly (Drosophila) as a model in their experiments.
. . .

“This is the fastest rate of evolution for this relationship so far; we know of no previous examples where an evolutionary shift towards mutualism has been observed in a period of decades in nature,” said Dr Weeks.

From parasite to saviour: bacteria breakthrough at the University of Melbourne : Research Review : News : The University of Melbourne

[Michaelangelica]

I had a friend who used to blend up his current garden pest (grashoppers caterpillars etc) in his kitchen garden blender. (Much to his wife's disgust.
He reckoned it keep the 'wiser' bugs away

Perhaps this is a similar system?

Poo fight in pest control

Friday, 13/06/2008

Tiger poo could soon be one of the ways to keep pest animals out of important vegetation areas.

Tanya Cox, a Ph.D. student from the University of Queensland is trialling tiger, Tasmanian devil and dingo faeces as odour repellents, that invoke a fear response in animals like kangaroos and goats.

She says the aim is to eventually develop a synthetic version of the poo, and have it available for a range of practical uses.

"I think it could be used for a range of situations, particularly things like forestry where they need protection for the first two or three months but you don't want to have to go to the expense of building a fence," she says.

"It could be used in national park revegetation areas, where building a fence is actually more destructive, right through to people's hobby farms or even their vegie patches in their own backyards."

Poo fight in pest control - 13/06/2008

I remember going into a man made "Cave" near a tiger enclosure at Toranga Zoo (Sydney) . At the end of the cave there were only a few bars between you and the tigers. I found the whole thing terrifying although I have previously been a caver.(Spediologist ). I had to get out quickly. I am sure it was the smell of the tigers that made me panic.

[Michaelangelica]

I had a friend who used to blend up his current garden pest (grasshoppers caterpillars etc) in his kitchen garden blender. (Much to his wife's disgust.) He then sprayed this around the garden.
He reckoned it keep the 'wiser' bugs away

Perhaps this is a similar system?

Poo fight in pest control

Friday, 13/06/2008

Tiger poo could soon be one of the ways to keep pest animals out of important vegetation areas.

Tanya Cox, a Ph.D. student from the University of Queensland is trialling tiger, Tasmanian devil and dingo faeces as odour repellents, that invoke a fear response in animals like kangaroos and goats.

She says the aim is to eventually develop a synthetic version of the poo, and have it available for a range of practical uses.

"I think it could be used for a range of situations, particularly things like forestry where they need protection for the first two or three months but you don't want to have to go to the expense of building a fence," she says.

"It could be used in national park revegetation areas, where building a fence is actually more destructive, right through to people's hobby farms or even their vegie patches in their own backyards."

Poo fight in pest control - 13/06/2008

I remember going into a man made "Cave" near a tiger enclosure at Toranga Zoo (Sydney) . At the end of the cave there were only a few bars between you and the tigers. I found the whole thing terrifying although I have previously been a caver.(Spediologist ). I had to get out quickly. I am sure it was the smell of the tigers that made me panic.