"A couple years ago somebody shared the method where you collect insects on a full Moon and let them decompose in water, then spray a dilution made with this pepper water out on the next Full Moon.
We tried that on a farm last for leaf-footed bugs which are notorious feeders on tomato fruits, causing yellowish marks that also effect flavor. They are hard to control organically and a real nuissance.
The farmer repeated the pepper spray on two consequtive Full Moons. After the second one she called up and said the bug population had "crashed". I went over and looked around, it was dramatic.
She remarked she finally believed there is something to all this biodynamic stuff we'd been doing around the farm."
BdNow 25 May 2011
Some experiences from BdNow
Further experiences
"I did this with slugs and snails way back in 1996-97 on a ½ acre block of daffodils that was being absolutely devastated by slugs and snails. I followed the same information as Lloyd had read from RS and Maria Thun.
Every spring I go out and pick from the same block of flowers and see very little evidence of slug damage where as I have a slug problem on other parts of the farm.
Just the other day I collected two lots of slugs & snails to repeat the exercise this spring I am thinking that after about 12-14 years it may be time to do it again."
BDNow - also on 25 May 2011
Every spring I go out and pick from the same block of flowers and see very little evidence of slug damage where as I have a slug problem on other parts of the farm.
Just the other day I collected two lots of slugs & snails to repeat the exercise this spring I am thinking that after about 12-14 years it may be time to do it again."
BDNow - also on 25 May 2011
I have been thinking some more about this - there was no plan - I got mad cuz the slugs were all over some lettuce - damage done at that point - I grabbed some (slugs) and put in a bottle I had alcohol in - with the idea of preserving them for burning later - but I filled the bottle and slugs being pretty juicy there was not enough alco to preserve them - at that point I wandered off to do some other job and forgot all about it - later I read the Steiner bit and that little one liner caught my attention - so - my wifes strawberrry patch - these are the last of my departed mothers heirloom plants and the slugs decide to party again - nice fruit with about 90%damage - she gets mad and I go looking for my bottle of slugs - still with the idea to burn them - but hey - there is just this small bottle of muck! - contents unrecognisable - still where I left it on the front porch in the sun - man that will stink! - so thinking of that decompose bit in the lectures lets give that a try - no way I am taking the lid off that bottle either - so out comes the Prue potentiser - I set it for D8, put the little bottle of slug juice on the input plate, drop the output lead into a 1.5 litre coke bottle of water, 3 minutes for that so I find a spare lid and punch some holes in with a meat skewer to make a crude spray bottle, when the potentise is done I cap the bottle and succuss 30 times, put my spray lid on and go get em! . More interested in them leaving as quick as possible than in killing them so (and I would always do this) start from the middle of the bed and work outwards then across the diagonals of the bed. Following Maria Thuns lead we did the treatment three days in succession (I'd interpret that as three times equally spaced so three days in a row or three saturdays in a row or three full moons - whatever) . My sister in law was visiting when we did the second treat and was amazed - slugs were crawling away as quick as they could move within ten minutes, and about half hour later there were a few forlorn ones at the very top of some of the upright strawberry stalks - noplace left to go!
We picked off all the damaged fruit and the next lot was almost blemish free. My thoughts after this - how come all the BD people that read that book and no one ever picked up on this? Everybody in the business is aware of ashing - and this decompose is on the same page - too simple maybe? I talked with James Hedley about it and he knew - very little different to what they were doing making nosodes for animal drenches I guess.
if nothing else I think this has value for very small critters like mites and fleas - way hard to catch enough to get some ash from burning - but a few in some water - much easier.
Our spray method for larger areas - we use a quad bike and a ten dollar pump sprayer - can do a couple hundred acres in an hour so long as you can ride over it - have done this for birds - chase them out first then do a lap round the perimeter then run the diagonals drawing a big X - once over with the sprayer nozzle down onto the ground then refill and go again with the nozzle directed up into the atmosphere - has worked a treat a couple of times. Creating an energy field that is repellent. And its fun doing laps on the bike.
BDnow 26/Mat 2011
We picked off all the damaged fruit and the next lot was almost blemish free. My thoughts after this - how come all the BD people that read that book and no one ever picked up on this? Everybody in the business is aware of ashing - and this decompose is on the same page - too simple maybe? I talked with James Hedley about it and he knew - very little different to what they were doing making nosodes for animal drenches I guess.
if nothing else I think this has value for very small critters like mites and fleas - way hard to catch enough to get some ash from burning - but a few in some water - much easier.
Our spray method for larger areas - we use a quad bike and a ten dollar pump sprayer - can do a couple hundred acres in an hour so long as you can ride over it - have done this for birds - chase them out first then do a lap round the perimeter then run the diagonals drawing a big X - once over with the sprayer nozzle down onto the ground then refill and go again with the nozzle directed up into the atmosphere - has worked a treat a couple of times. Creating an energy field that is repellent. And its fun doing laps on the bike.
BDnow 26/Mat 2011