MOSQUITOS

[jix]

Help... the mosquitos are trying to steal my kobota... Should I get a bigger tractor?

 

[sseelhoff]

The answer to that question is always yes, regardless of the cause.:thumbsup:

 

[jix]

Today I learned that mosquito larvae are the root and basis of a lot of ecology. They feed a million kinds of little fish, which feed birds and mink, etc, and so on up the food chain, apparently including me.
Sort of means that my ancient and decrepit corpus is important in the grand scheme of things.
Wow, I had begun to think of myself as nearly completely useless, except to the tractor industry and the food stores in town, maybe to the gas stations, and of course, the government for taxes. MAYBE THAT IS WHY MOSQUITO BITES ANNOY ME SO MUCH!unch:

 

[Wagtail]

Count yourself fortunate, Mate. Without a lie, the mozzies here in Oz will bite through your clothing. ath:

I was out riding my horse when I felt that familiar 'sting' on my left thigh... through my jodhpurs! <SMACK>

 

[dave1949]

Mosquitoes pollinate flowers!

Aedes communis: The Pollinating Mosquito

I'm still thinking about the 14 grains of pollen needed to pollinate blueberries. I think bees cannot count past three, so how do they get 14? :laughing: Couldn't multiple black flies visit the same blueberry blossom and eventually get to 14? I dunno about that bit of research.

 

[jix]

Mosquitoes pollinate flowers!

Aedes communis: The Pollinating Mosquito

I'm still thinking about the 14 grains of pollen needed to pollinate blueberries. I think bees cannot count past three, so how do they get 14? :laughing: Couldn't multiple black flies visit the same blueberry blossom and eventually get to 14? I dunno about that bit of research.

Dave 1949..I dunno either Dave, but that is what says in a scientific citation from Google published by a blue berry boffin for the Blueberrie industry
NB is one of the largest producers of Canadian Blueberries and God knows we have a lotta mosquitos, but no snow lake mosquitos (not high enough in elevation in most parts). I think that the citation must be accurate, else why would blueberry farmers rent a lot of bee hives and bumble bee hives to put in their fields every summer?? I don't say that bluebewrries are never pollinated by blackflies, however, just that the blackfly is not a major pollinator Blue berries are a rhizome and do not need to be pollinated to spread their roots and start new clone plants, but must be pollinated by insects to produce good big sweet berries. Otherwise, they produce small berries with little juice which have very little commercial value and no seeds which will grow, since they are genetic clones of the bush that produces them if there is no cross pollination. Also, for this reason, cuitivated blueberry fields are located close to other blueberry fields from another rhizome ancestor, usually a large format blueberry field which produces very large blueberries. In my general area there are thousand acre blueberry fields, but you cannot get into them without breaking a fence.

My wife buys fresh berries in season and about 40 lbs of frozen berries for the winter. Frozen berries are about 15 bucks a ten pound box. we eat them on our cheerios every day. In Summer, I get the jumbo berries and eat them with heavy cream for a desert after dinner. Yummy!

 

[dave1949]

Dave 1949..I dunno either Dave, but that is what says in a scientific citation from Google published by a blue berry boffin for the Blueberrie industry
NB is one of the largest producers of Canadian Blueberries and God knows we have a lotta mosquitos, but no snow lake mosquitos (not high enough in elevation in most parts). I think that the citation must be accurate, else why would blueberry farmers rent a lot of bee hives and bumble bee hives to put in their fields every summer?? I don't say that bluebewrries are never pollinated by blackflies, however, just that the blackfly is not a major pollinator Blue berries are a rhizome and do not need to be pollinated to spread their roots and start new clone plants, but must be pollinated by insects to produce good big sweet berries. Otherwise, they produce small berries with little juice which have very little commercial value and no seeds which will grow, since they are genetic clones of the bush that produces them if there is no cross pollination. Also, for this reason, cuitivated blueberry fields are located close to other blueberry fields from another rhizome ancestor, usually a large format blueberry field which produces very large blueberries. In my general area there are thousand acre blueberry fields, but you cannot get into them without breaking a fence.

My wife buys fresh berries in season and about 40 lbs of frozen berries for the winter. Frozen berries are about 15 bucks a ten pound box. we eat them on our cheerios every day. In Summer, I get the jumbo berries and eat them with heavy cream for a desert after dinner. Yummy!

Just pulling your leg a bit. I agree they wouldn't import beehives if the black flies did a good job on their own.

Blueberry pie is my favorite. Blueberries on ice vanilla cream, on cereal. Yum. Supposed to be very good for health too--but blueberries can have a lot of pesticide residues. What?s On My Food :: Pesticides on Blueberries

Blueberries are #45 on this list of 50 worst foods for residues. Does washing remove the pesticides from foods? : Ask Dr. Gourmet

 

[jix]

dave1949: I have read your last post..every word of both of the links...It gave me heartburn... but the sky has not fallen.
For one thing, pesticides are a necessary evil if we shall succeed in feeding the planet....for another thing trace amounts of nasty chemicals are not nasty, really. My well water contains 7PPM of arsenic.. that is a quite low level of a quite poisonous chemical, and so it is unimportant.
The only perfectly pure water on this planet must be created by the electrolysis of hydrogen and oxygen. Perfectly pure water does not exist in nature. And even perfectly pure water is toxic, if you drink too much of it.
Even organic foods contain bad chemicals which fall out of the sky with rain, or come from packaging and processing.
The detection levels made possible with sophisticated laboratory instruments are so low (sensitive) that even the atmosphere contributes to readings.
Gas chromatography, magnetically coupled plasma spectrophotometers, mass spectrometers. magnetic resonators, ion polarimeters, et al, have such incredible sensitivity that it is necessary to ignore the lowest possible findings as meaningless.

In other words, Dave, we must decide if these kinds of tests do any good, or do they just scare us.
Fact is, we gotta eat. Fact is that chemicals exist. Fact is that, in most people there is no meaningful harm done, yes there is cancer, yes there are carcinogenic chemicals. Are these chemicals present in our foods? YES they are Would they be present if absolutely no chemical pesticides were ever used? YES they would...from industrial pollutants such as thermal energy plants, woo stoves, motor exhaust, garbage fires in dumps, etc, etc ,

Statistics can demonstrate that one of the most carcinogenic agents we are regularly exposed to is sunshine.. skin cancer is a leading type of cancer BTW.

Ok - so is it worth never eating blueberries to AVOID being hyper frightened by stuff that is not really very dangerous?

Its a free world, so they say. Nobody lives forever, so they say. If you don't eat you starve, so they say.

Dave, sometimes I wish THEY would shaddup.
I think we have gone too far with scaring the bejeepers out of each other, based upon misunderstood, misstated, non-significant information

I like blueberries and most other fruit, way too much to quaver about getting a lethal dose of chemicals in my food, and I do not want the planet to starve to death while the insects eat merrily through our food supply. I am gonna die anyway, from some cause. I am already 73 YO. and I have diabetes, which is genetic. I have had skin cancer from sunshine. My greatest threat now is old age. Blueberry-induced necrosis is way better, to me, than living forever as a dessicated liability to society in a death warehouse..

So dave...keep the worries you have, if you do, to yourself, please..and stop pulling my chain. That is mischief.

Now pass the toxic blueberries, straw berries, etc. I am in a race to eternity against about 8 billion other people, plus a gazillion bugs.. and I need my nourishment... Pax Vobiscum

 

[dave1949]

What fun would living be without a bit mischief? :laughing:

I didn't think those articles were intended to be scary, just informative. What is more basic than knowing what you are eating? The interesting take away is you can avoid or limit your exposure through careful choices and actions. For blueberries, domestic versus imported, and conventional versus organic growing, makes a huge difference in typical pesticide residue levels.

Do you think the exposure to carcinogens, hormone disruptors, or neurotoxins for examples, is additive? A little here, a little there adds up I think. The health safety tests for various discrete chemical compounds don't address that additive result in the human body and certainly not over a long period of years, or differentiated for older less healthy immune systems. I ain't scared , but I think we know less than we think we do about some of this stuff.

 

[jix]

What fun would living be without a bit mischief? :laughing:

I didn't think those articles were intended to be scary, just informative. What is more basic than knowing what you are eating? The interesting take away is you can avoid or limit your exposure through careful choices and actions. For blueberries, domestic versus imported, and conventional versus organic growing, makes a huge difference in typical pesticide residue levels.

Do you think the exposure to carcinogens, hormone disruptors, or neurotoxins for examples, is additive? A little here, a little there adds up I think. The health safety tests for various discrete chemical compounds don't address that additive result in the human body and certainly not over a long period of years, or differentiated for older less healthy immune systems. I ain't scared , but I think we know less than we think we do about some of this stuff.

HI dave1949:

Yes and No. Why? Read on, if you dare:

I was once involved heavil, as an agent of the Federal Gov't, with an organization in Canada called Sprayers Of Dioxin. Their brief was to extort money from the Gov't for supposed damages from the use of Agent Orange in vast tracts of land, public and private for exposure to high leverls of Dioxin, which they claimed were caused by exposure to Dioxin along the railraods, power lines and military artillery ranges in new Brunswick. The chiref proponents were, you guessed it, Tort Lawyers aqnd members of the executive of the SODA protestors. It was an obscene arrangement which, had it been successful would have raked off 75% of all of the damages awarded. They were not successful for several reasons:
1. there were no effects in the group of people claiming damages, even after twenty-five years, and ;
2. Ogent Orange (as used in Vietnam) was a herbicide called 2-4, D ( round-up) mfrd by Dow chemical.
There are two forms : 2, 4, 5,-D 1sobutyl Dioxin,which has butyl Dioxin, which is fat soluble in the human body, and the other was 2,4 D Isopropyl Dioxin, which is water soluble in the human body.

This is a key differentiation 2,4,5 -D Isobutyl Dioxin ACCUMULATES addidtively IN THE TISSUES, whereasas 2,4- D Isopropyl Dioxin does not accumulate additively. The SODA proponents lost in court and went bankrupt as result.
Differentiating between the solutes of toxins is difficult after they have been metabolised (Chelated) in the biological process is very difficult, if not impossible, by normal lab procedures, because both form identical chelates through the metabolic process. The only real test involves tissue analysis post-mortem or biopsy.
Because of this differention, no ill effects to SODA proponents could be shown and their case was dismissed.
Because of a production overlap between the two types, all 2,4-D and 2,4, 5 -Dioxin was banned in Canada, except for licenced professional users. It is not available here in stores in any form. Licensed sprayer may use 2,4,5-D in carefully mixed and applied dosage rates. Now we are knee deep in weeds in our lawns FWIW , all DIOXIN is a hormone effective toxin

The reason I relate all this is because other available insecticides are differentiated to be water soluable without additive properties, but their trace elements are not differentiated in this way, as for 2,4-D and 2,4,5-D dioxin, as to cumulative effects, so measuring the trace amounts on vegetables is a crude indicator only that it was used. It does not identify the isotopes in the chelated form, but no matter. All fat soluble insecticide is bannnd in Canada. None of them are therefore additive toxins. That does not mean that they are harmless, NO, it means that they are not additive over time. Cumulative dosages do play a part in toxicity, but only if successive dosages are taken relatively rapidly, which is to say, faster than the body can expel then by normal bodily processes. (24 hrs usually.) There are exceptions in certain classes of toxins, but these do not include accepted insecticides. Crop sprayers et al must try to prevent frequent exposures to toxins considered non-cumulative, however, because of the frequency of potential exposure.

Malathion is now illegal for use in Canada
for that reason While not additive, it is very persistent in the body because of the way that it chemically binds(chelates) to normal body fats. And it is also very toxic. Ditto, DDT

There now, Dave. You must decide if I am pulling your leg or not. Have at it and report back to me in not more than three days...and show your work. Extra points for neatness, of course:drink:
This is just such fun, ain't it?

Jix