permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

I have seen many examples of how ants nurture aphids, but what I saw today 
still surprised me.  The ants had built mud structures around my artichoke 
plants (stalks and leaves) so that whitish ants that normally only colonize 
the roots could feed on the plant’s green parts even in cold weather.  They 
built delicate earth walls around the stalks to about a foot above ground and 
started to plaster the artichoke leaves with mud to a height of two to three 
feet. In the part they had completed, there was a narrow hollow space between 
the plant and the mud walls so that the ants could circulate freely for 
milking the aphids.
 

The ants also already nurture colonies of aphids on the citrus trees, 
something they normally only do in March or April when the weather gets 
warmer.  They also collected much of the wheat I had broadcast into the 
fields.  Normally, I can broadcast seeds without soil cover from mid-November 
because the ants stay underground during the winter.  I have never seen ants 
that active by mid-December.  
 
Looks like ants and aphids are adapting well to climate change. Are we?
 
Dieter Brand
Portugal
 



>From fdnokes@hotmail.com  Thu Dec 10 18:27:58 2009
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Subject: Re: [permaculture] Jethro Tull
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Hey Tripp,

I was impressed with your acumen.  And fascinated to learn something about
JT.
Great thing about 'group think', once we can surrender ourselves to the
process, is that we can put our best together.
Just one word of warning: though this piece might be true, I would not like
to take wikipedia for cash on all matters, particularly those that are hotly
debated. I doubt this warning has relevance here, but taking my opportunity
to mention it.

Frances


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Tripp Tibbetts" <slowfoodguy@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 3:12 PM
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Jethro Tull

> Rain, thanks for the clarification.  I was recalling the story from
> memory, as the book with that information was already out on loan to a
> future permie.
>
> Tripp