North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>]

A few drops of a good non-toxic mineral oil on the silks when they turn brown (after trimming them back,) works for me. But that might be a little too labor intensive for anyone with a large block of corn. Earworms don't seem to bother them. Mineral oil is probably not truly organic, but it works well and doesn't contaminate the environment as far as I can tell.

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From: Mark Angermayer <hangermayer@isp.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 1:42:21 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] GF 120 for cherry fruit fly and neonicotinoid classofpesticides

Yes, corn is wind pollinated.  Instead of saying bees pollinate our sweet corn, I should have said bees visit our sweet corn.  The bees cover up the tassels during pollen shed.  I never see any on silks, so I'm not afraid to carefully spray the silks with pesticide to eliminate corn earworm.

 

Mark

KS

----- Original Message -----

From: Kevin Moore

To: North American Fruit Explorers

Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 12:36 PM

Subject: Re: [NAFEX] GF 120 for cherry fruit fly and neonicotinoid classofpesticides

Interesting that your sweet corn is pollinated by bees. I always thought corn and most other cereal grains were wind pollinated. I've grown sweet corn for a few years and have yet to see any bees on them.

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From: Mark Angermayer <hangermayer@isp.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 12:07:22 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] GF 120 for cherry fruit fly and neonicotinoid class ofpesticides

A neonicitiniod has been banned in Germany.  They claim it's a culprit in
colony collapse disorder

http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/1303

Some of the beekeepers can correct me, but I thought the latest research was
a viral complex causing the disorder.  I think there's a tendency for people
studying this to jump to conclusions.  I remember a few years ago some
people were convinced CCD was caused by genetically modified corn.  Even on
this list, there was one individual so convinced that GM corn was the
culprit, he flat insulted some folks who didn't accept the GM theory.

There's lots of bees around here.  Black bees (don't know what kind they
are) pollinate our sweet corn.  There's also a beekeeper close by.  So far
he hasn't seen any CCD, but he doesn't move his bees, which may help.

Mark
KS


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ginda Fisher" <>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] GF 120 for cherry fruit fly and neonicotinoid class
ofpesticides


>
> On Feb 11, 2009, at 1:28 PM, Webmail wynne wrote:
>
> > . . .
> > I have read that the Germans have done research suggesting the
> > neonicotinoid class of pesticides may be/are involved in the decrease
> > of bee populations worldwide.  In my certified organic field, i have
> > eliminated the use of Entrust (spinosad) for codling moth due to its
> > widespread
> > kill abilities--the few times i have sprayed this material, all
> > populations
> > of insects (including the beneficials) have been decimated. . .
>
> Thanks, that's very interesting.  I've used spinosad in my yard for
> the past two years.  I sprayed it on the apples and blueberries, and I
> hired a tree company to spray my oaks.  I live in the middle of a
> serious infestation of winter moths, and spinosad appeared less toxic
> to me and my pets than the other options that work.  (BT is
> recommended, but you have to spray it within a one or two day window
> of when the eggs hatch to have any effect at all, and even then most
> of them survive.)  How serious is the infestation?  My sister, a
> couple miles away, had an apple and a pear tree completely defoliated
> - not a single bit of leaf showing.  (They resprouted after the winter
> moth season ended, and survived, but that can't be good for the
> trees.)  I had zero apple blossoms (they mostly eat the heart out of
> swelling buds, and selectively eat the fruiting buds before the
> vegetative buds) and pretty scruffy looking oak leaves the year before
> I hired the tree company.
>
> I had a long discussion about bees with the tree company, which claims
> to care about such things.  They spray twice and the second spray has
> been during apple bloom but they both drape the trees with cloth and
> avoid spraying in that direction.  I never spray anything in bloom, of
> course, and with my little hand-sprayer, there's not enough drift to
> worry about it getting on the dandelions, etc.  (I have flowering
> weeds, but not right underneath the apples or especially close to the
> blueberries.)  But I'm pretty sure there's drift onto flowering weeds
> from spraying the oaks.
>
> I haven't seen a honey bee here in more than a decade, so I'm not
> concerned about contributing to colony collapse disorder, but I have
> noticed a reduction in the number of bumblebees.  I have had excellent
> pollination both years I used spinosad, despite the decrease in number
> of bees I see.  And my late season insect population has been okay,
> including praying mantises and other rarer bugs.  Still, this is an
> excellent reason to monitor the situation carefully, and stop spraying
> as soon as possible.  I understand some winter moth parasite or
> disease has been released locally, and there's hope the population
> will drop from "infestation" to "nuisance" in a few more years.
>
> Ginda Fisher
> eastern Mass., zone 6
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