The untold dangers of gardening ....

[Mdlerth]

These are the best of times, these are the worst of times

I fear humans will end up creating an earth of farms and humans. Our ecosystems are disastrous. Nothing political here, we just want perfect lawns, perfect fruit (no bruising), bug free farms, weed free crops and perfectly manicured forests. We have no idea what we're doing.

I can't promise you exactly what will happen in the future, but I think your fears are unfounded. All technologies start out crude but become more sophisticated over time. Why should we expect it to be otherwise?

In the early 90s, my DW had a cell phone the size of a purse which did nothing but place and answer calls. Her current cell phone, barely larger than a deck of cards, is already more advanced than a Star Trek communicator.

In my lifetime I've seen similar advances in autos, appliances, aircraft, manufacturing and medicine. Also craft beer, but that's a topic all its own!

Fundamental agricultural science is still in its infancy; in a hundred years it will be safer, more efficient, and more integrated with natural processes than any of us can imagine today. And a hundred years after that, it will be unrecognizably advanced.

And don't get me started about the oceans.

When I was a kid, I was captivated watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. Certainly JC was as huge an advocate for respecting our oceans as anybody. But toward the end of his life, he looked back on his early work and apologized that it was so primitive.

I don't mean to disparage Cousteau. It's inevitable that we know more now than he did then. And we wouldn't know what we know today without his early work. A long time from now, 22nd century folks will consider us absurdly primitive. And later on, 23rd century people will wonder what those quaint, ignorant 22nd-ers were thinking. Et cetera.

 

[JoeWras]

I'm optimistic.

Growing up in the city, the place was a desert. Very little lived except for gray squirrels, sparrows, rats and mosquitoes. Even the mosquitoes had problems due the aerial carpet bombing. Probably DDT!

The good news is we had no bedbugs.

The bad news is we had very little life outside. My friends and I would love the occasional grasshopper we found to death. Everything was sprayed. If a tree grew, cut it! Pave it! Rat holes were fumigated with cyanide. Really, no joke. The lake (Michigan) was deader than dead. Rivers were channeled into concrete. Sewage was barely treated, and during rains, caused emergency backflow into the dead lake. Warnings were issued for fecal grease balls (the actual words used). Don't swim.

We've come a long way since then. I'm not saying it is perfect. I'm just saying I have a bit more optimism.

But dang, now that we have deer in the city, we have ticks! No DDT, so bedbugs! Can't win!

 

[Rianne]

One tick tidbit, they inject a sort of anesthesia. And they're so dang tiny. So you don't feel them and good luck seeing them. I have so many moles and tiny red spots, I could freak myself out every time I look the for the critters. They walk right over deet, it does not kill them, until they find what they are looking for. They don't like a ton of sun. They prefer woodsy areas but I'm cautious anywhere there's tall grass. They do not jump out of trees, they crawl up. My bullseye rash was on my arm, which means he found his way crawling up my body.

 

[Choices]

I went to the outdoor store to buy some clothing permiated with safe anti- bug stuff, got a rash on the inside of my wrist just from carrying the shirt from the dressing room to checkout. Don’t know what I am going to do.
As a kid ran through the palmetto thickets near my FL home, learned to avoid certain snakes. Anything more or less harmless, we could capture and keep in a mayonnaise jar. I do hate roaches though. And just so you know, palmetto bugs are roaches!

 

[JoeWras]

After a good DEET soaking last Saturday, I think I'm still feeling some poison. Or maybe just getting old. So as an alternative, I'm thinking of screen pants. Anyone use anything like this? This brand is Bug Bafflers, but I think there are others. I wonder if these work?

 

[Rianne]

I can't promise you exactly what will happen in the future, but I think your fears are unfounded. All technologies start out crude but become more sophisticated over time. Why should we expect it to be otherwise?

In the early 90s, my DW had a cell phone the size of a purse which did nothing but place and answer calls. Her current cell phone, barely larger than a deck of cards, is already more advanced than a Star Trek communicator.

In my lifetime I've seen similar advances in autos, appliances, aircraft, manufacturing and medicine. Also craft beer, but that's a topic all its own!

Fundamental agricultural science is still in its infancy; in a hundred years it will be safer, more efficient, and more integrated with natural processes than any of us can imagine today. And a hundred years after that, it will be unrecognizably advanced.

When I was a kid, I was captivated watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. Certainly JC was as huge an advocate for respecting our oceans as anybody. But toward the end of his life, he looked back on his early work and apologized that it was so primitive.

I don't mean to disparage Cousteau. It's inevitable that we know more now than he did then. And we wouldn't know what we know today without his early work. A long time from now, 22nd century folks will consider us absurdly primitive. And later on, 23rd century people will wonder what those quaint, ignorant 22nd-ers were thinking. Et cetera.

Yes, that’s true. All technological advances are helpful, but they are profit driven. It’s all about money. There is no profit in preserving the diversity of our planet, plants, bugs, animals and so on. It’s easier to tear down rain forests to plant palm trees for palm oil, to bulldoze prairies and forests to build houses for profit. Technology also created plastics and pesticides.

 

[Winemaker]

^^
Didn't Barbara Eden have a pair of these pants?

 

[travelover]

^^
Didn't Barbara Eden have a pair of these pants?

Like this?

 

[JoeWras]

Wow! They are the same. Just no pink color! I guess Jeanie didn't have to worry about ticks.

 

[Amethyst]

Jeanie was so adorable! I just loved watching her when I was little.

Like this?

 

[Ragna]

I live in a rural area in western Wisconsin, which is tick and lyme disease central. Every member of my family has contracted Lyme disease except me (crap, now I jinxed myself). Due to my job and my hobbies I have the most exposure of anyone in my family. DEET can help to hide you from ticks (just as it does for mosquitos) but it does not really repel or kill them. I highly recommend wearing treated clothing (e.g., permanone, permethrin) to kill any ticks that might find their way on to you. Those insecticides have low mobility through skin, low toxicity to vertebrates, and tightly binds to the clothing fibers. You can buy treated clothing that will retain it's insecticidal/repellent qualities for around 70 washings. You can also buy spray to treat your own clothing that lasts through several washings, but it will require periodic retreatment every 1 to 2 months. You can also consider purchasing treated or untreated bite proof/resistant underclothing (e.g, rhynoskin tights/shirts, elimitick, etc.) for additional protection. Lastly, do a thorough tick check after each time you are in the woods or fields especially in spring and early fall when ticks are more likely to be questing for a new meal.

 

[travelover]

........... You can buy treated clothing that will retain it's insecticidal/repellent qualities for around 70 washings. You can also buy spray to treat your own clothing that lasts through several washings, but it will require periodic retreatment every 1 to 2 months...........

REI sells kits to treat clothing, but I found that one can buy fly spray from Tractor Supply with the same pesticide for about 10 times less. I do my own clothes, spraying them on a temporary clothes line in the garage.

 

[always_learning]

How about starting the lawnmower and then realizing the yellow jackets are in the engine?

That is a terrifying thought.

After a good DEET soaking last Saturday, I think I'm still feeling some poison. Or maybe just getting old. So as an alternative, I'm thinking of screen pants. Anyone use anything like this? This brand is Bug Bafflers, but I think there are others. I wonder if these work?

I love the idea of those. I know the hats with the mesh work to keep black flies out of one's face and neck so I don't know why those 'pants' wouldn't work, too. I like that idea a whole lot more than wearing long sleeves and long pants when it's 98* and 90% humidity out, or whatever the horrible heat/air stuff is around here.

You know they can fly ... sort of. Seriously! I hate to say it, but I "got used to them" while living in FL. I couldn't believe that one time while entering the house, one decided to lift off and fly (drunkenly) into the house. For pete's sake, I'm trying to keep them out and keep a clean house and now they fly into the house? You gotta be kidding me!

They don't resort to flight often, but when they do, they just add to the nightmare.

And that is the nightmarish thing that happened to me that I mentioned earlier. Palmetto Bug, night time, me eight years old with long, long hair, and one of them FLEW INTO MY HAIR and got tangled. How I didn't die on the spot, I'll never know. Of course, my poor mother thought I was being murdered and came running outside to see what the screeching was about.

And just so you know, palmetto bugs are roaches!

Ayup, but calling a Palmetto Bug a 'roach' is akin to calling a tarantula a 'spider'.