permaculture

["Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

A short time ago ("Observations Afoot") somebody asked about 
spittlebugs.  A woman from Brazil replied with an intuitive response, 
she referred to energetic imbalances on the Earth.   That drew flack 
from a permaculture man on this list who suggested that good old 
common permaculture sense should not be neglected; i.e., he focused 
on what we can learn from patterns in Nature.  

To be fair, I felt like I could relate to both the intuitive 
/energetic modalities angle as well as the practical 
permaculture/patterns in Nature angle.  I like both and I teach both. 

But I don't recall that anybody answered the question about 
spittlebugs. 

In my estimation, spittlebugs do little damage to plants unless they
are attaching to a market herb or veggie crop in which case they 
would be a nuissance in terms of salability requiring additional 
steps to remove the spittle and washing the crop.  

Still, the presence of an overabundance of spittlebugs begs the 
questions:  

*what is the role of spittlebugs in Nature
*what factors influence a heavy population of spittlebugs 
*what patterns can we discern by observing spittlebugs, weather,
  plants, ecology
*what action is required, if any, to adjust the environment away 
  from the presence of spittlebugs 

I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but don't 
you think we should think like this?  

All of this leads me to the Grandaddy LongLeg situation here in
the Ozarks.   Me and my neighbors up on Markham Hill swear
we are being invaded by hordes-more-than-usual Grandaddy
LongLeg Spiders.   

Hmm, I wonder what ecological factors influence the population of 
these little guys?  The hot dry conditions of early July make me 
wonder if we'll get any more rain this summer.  Are these 
observations related?   Again, no answers just questions. 

Which all leads to the following post from the BDNOW list. 
In the following post from Ferdinand, there is a mixture of
the intuitive as well as scientific.  

Food for thought about ants and aphids and trees and 
squirrels and nitrogen and BD 501. 

Steve Diver



------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Thu, 9 Jul 1998 22:57:21 -0500
To:            bdnow@igg.com
From:          Ferdinand Vondruska <ferdy@direct.ca> (by way of BD NOW!)
Subject:       Re: Ant Predators

Joan Macdonald (by way of BD NOW!) wrote:
>
> Hugh;
>
>      A few months ago you posted a piece on ants and aphids, in it you
> mentioned that  the ants could be persuaded to keep their aphid herd down
> below ground by encouraging their predators to come around.
>      Any encouraging long term BD or other suggestions for my homeopathic
> tutor, Patty  as they just moved to this property.
>
> She wrote to me:
>        *** The ants are eating every conceiveable plant in one of our
> gardens!
> All flowers, and the previous owners had about 500 ant traps in the soil,
> all over the garden, and we took them all and tossed them out... but we also
> now have no flowers because they are consuming them ALL!
>
> Thanks--Joan Macdonald
>
>  She also inherited herd of groundhogs along with the ants and aphids.

Dear Joan,
When ants go after plants they know that something sweet is hidden
inside it. Ants love sweet stuff, we all know. So, there may be
something in the soil that is too high in nitrogen. I just returned from
MIchael Hall, Waldorf School, in Forest Row, England. And the forester
of this marvellous 100 acre property said: look at the damage to the
beech trees by the squirrels. Yes, they had ripped off large junks of
bark from almost all beech trees. And it was obvious that the trees
would eventually dye. So, I meditated with the forester and, low and
behold, within minutes we had the answer, it came with the forest being.
It had to do with the fall out, with too much N, nitrogen. The forest
was, physically, fertilized as much as a rye or grass field - it came
via the rain and was caused by the high burning gasoline engines. It was
clear, too much N. So, the trees could not absorb the sugar that was
produced in this process and put it into the bark. The squirrels, no
dummies either, used this sugar-kiosks and ate themselves silly. There
is such a squirrel explosion in Sussex that you can hardly 'love' them
any longer. There are no natural predators. Perhaps, the odd Milan or
Falcon or what have you. And foxes were a bit more active. But, the
problem does not lie with nature, it lies with man's unabated hunger and
therefore burning of gasoline and the production of N. In Europe, where
gas engines burn at a higher temperature, they produce less S (sulfur)
but more N. on this continent, we burn our gasoline at lower
temperatures and, therefore, produce less N but more S. And so, I
recommended the forester (Simon is his name) to spray a lot of 501. 501
will help with the transformaton of sugar into starch (in most plants).
So, if you, dear Joan, have an ant problem, it may be related to too
much N. Try it with 501, in the morning. Many times. Perhaps once a
week. Regards and success; Ferdinand


--
steved@ncatark.uark.edu