Daddy Long Leggers

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 21, 2001

MarkV

I was told they're Asian Lady bugs. They're the kind you see advertised in the back of gardening magazines. Our native ones die every winter. These just come in your house and hibernate.

SHF

RichZ · Jun 21, 2001

Mark, lady bugs primarily eat aphids. They are the best non-chemical means of controlling aphids.If aphids were attacking pine tree, that would be it.

Rich

cowboydoc · Jun 22, 2001

Hey when I was working on the barn yesterday I saw a daddy long leg that had fluorescent red bumps all over its' body and legs. Anybody know what this is? Mites, eggs?

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 23, 2001

Rich,

Nothing eats those stupid oakworms. Not birds, not fish. They're a caterpillar, about as big as a pencil and a couple of inches long. They'll strip the leaves off the trees by the end of a summer. There's usually aerial spraying from helicopters, but there's always a bunch that get away. Believe it or not, caterpillars go potty. Looks kinda like coffee grounds. Don't think I want any of that brew /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif. But imagine the poor campers. I've been in the woods when it sounded like rain.

SHF

RichZ · Jun 25, 2001

Richard, I've seen that before, too. I think they're some sort of parasite on the daddy long legs. They do look like mites.

Rich

RichZ · Jun 25, 2001

SHF, I know what you mean! I used to live on Long Island, and had a very wooded half-acre (a big lot for Long Island!), and there is a big Gypsy Moth Caterpiller problem there every few years. It always sounded like it was raining in the woods, and everything wood get covered with their droppings, which get bigger and bigger as the summer goes on. The problem would get worse because everyone would spray their trees with pesticides. Well the gypsy moths are immune to almost any pesticide you can think of, so all everyone accomplished was killing everything else. Not only insects, but a day after spraying, you'd find dead birds and squirrels. The spraying did more damage than the caterpillers!

Rich

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 25, 2001

Rich,

I've been told that the oakworms and gypsy moths are two different critters. But I think they're just about the same thing.

The aerial spraying they are doing here is not with persticides. They are using a bacteria that is apparently common and fatal to the worms, and supposedly harmless to humans and everything else. After a few years of it and several complaints from seniors about breathing problems shortly after the spraying, they started warning everyone to stay indoors while the spray is applied and for a few hours afterward.

Its kind of an interesting operation to watch. They mark out areas to be sprayed using large colored helium balloons on long strings attached to stakes, sign posts, etc. The choppers and spray planes just have to stay within the boundaries marked by the balloons.

SHF

RichZ · Jun 27, 2001

SHF, the bacteria you're talking about is Bacillus Thuringeis(sp?), commonly called BT. It's a bacteria that only effects catterpillers. Very effective and very safe. It effects their digestive system, and won't allow them to absorb nutrients. It doesn't harm anything other than catterpillars, and they can't become immune to it like they can to pesticides. It's really the best and safest thing to use for any kind of catterpiller infestation. They now have deveolped a sub'species of the bacteria, BTI, that kills mosquito larvae. Also very safe, and effective.

Rich

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 27, 2001

Rich,

That's pretty much the stuff they're using. Locally at least, they are posting warnings before spraying so that people with breathing problems can get inside. Probably better safe that sorry, but I wonder how many of the complaints are just somebody seeing a helicopter spraying and deciding the "pesticide" is making them sick.

SHF