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Pests
Ben B's speech got a big cheer from the stock market. I think Obama was cheering too.
Two views:
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Other Pests
If you live in America, you know it has been unusually hot. During the week of March 18, 3,550 heat records were set.
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The spring heat has brought us a large new crop of unwanted visitors. High on the list is the Halyomorpha halys, better know as Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, or “stinkers” for short. If you have not yet come across these pests, you probably soon will. They are spreading across the country like wildfire.
These bugs are hardy sons of bitches. They are about ¾ of inch long, and have a very hard shell. They hibernate in the winter. As a result of the early spring, they are coming out in droves. A few pics of what to look for:
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I happened to be in Florida over the weekend and was very surprised to learn that stinkers are problem there. I thought they were just an issue for the North-East. The Florida agriculture Department had this to say about the arrival of Stinkers in the Sun Shine state:
US distribution of this pest is a moving target. These bugs are suited ideally to hitchhiking with items moved by human activity.In Florida, a specimen was caught in a trap next to a commercial ship berth at Port Everglades. Additionally, several specimens have been found in homes and vehicles of seasonal residents, or residents who moved to Florida from various infested states.It feeds on a wide range of hosts, including peach, apple, pear, fig, mulberry, grape, raspberry, citrus and persimmon, as well as on row crops such as snap bean and soybean.
Stinkers are a new phenomenon in America. They came to this country from China. They were first observed in 1998 in Allentown PA. They have been proliferating and spreading ever since. They kill crops and are a nuisance. These bugs have the potential to cause a great deal of damage. They have a needle-like nose that bores into fruit/corn and other crops. This ruins the crops.
Last year some poor bastard in Maryland had his house taken over by tens of thousands of stinkers. The bugs won, the homeowner lost:
If you see one of these bugs, don’t step on it. You’ll regret it if you do. When crushed, they stink. Your house will smell awful and you’ll need a new pair of shoes (hence the name). Pesticides will kill them, but that is not a good solution either. If they die in the walls, they'll rot and stink as if they were crushed. The odor of their death can bring another problem. The smell of the dead stinkers attracts carpet beetles, which can be as problematic as the stinkers themselves.
So far stinkers have been found in thirty-seven states. They hitch a ride on cars and trucks; by the end of 2012 they will be in every state.
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stinkbugs,maybe bruce has some carbon credits for sale cheap.
After reading this article I feel like scratching my skin. I am well aware of stinkbugs. I really find it hard to believe that a man's house was invaded by thousands of stinkbugs... Well, I guess when it comes to pests I very much prefer the termites to the stinkbuds, they can cause significant amounts of damage but at least they don't stink.
Krakatoa erupted in 1883. This single volcano changed the earths climate for 5 years. Man's destructive use of carbon fuels has put way more gas into the environment than a million Krakatoa. To continue to deny that this would not have a effect on the earths climate is to continue to believe the earth was flat, or in Virgin birth. Remember the Iceland volcano that shut down aviation in Europe. Your gut would say it must have been putting out way more CO2 than the planes it grounded. Yet the fact is planes put out more than 50% CO2 per day than the volcano. The volcano lasted a few days, the planes fly every day. How can any sane person deny man is not affecting climate? http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/planes-or-volcano/
I also find it very humorous that you compare believing in a flat earth with "Virgin birth".
Have you ever stopped to think, that what was considered a "miracle" a few short decades ago, and considered by you, to be equal to believing the earth was flat, is entirely possible today, in fact, I am willing to bet that more than one "Virgin" has conceived a child and given birth. No laws of nature need to be broken, or even bent. A penis inserted into a vagina, breaking the hymen, is no longer the only way of conception. Or are you unaware of developments in the world such as long needles and artificial insemination?
In fact, I find it hard to find anything that is considered a "miracle" in the Jesus Christ story to be impossible or contrary to the laws of nature. Miracles of the first century AD are common medical procedure today.
Wake up fool.
Classic straw man arguments. Nice job. Church of JohnFrodo of Latter Day Environmental Saints.
Should we add an amen after?
Refute the ocean temperature cycle as the primary cause of global warming AND cooling. Ice cores are real scientific evidence. No grant money for you...
If humans are responsible for global warming, why are there palm fossils in Wyoming and Montana millions of years before the first humans?
http://www.bynaturegallery.com/Fossil-Palm-Frond.html
And why is global warming bad? I wouldn't mind being able to plant a palm tree in my back yard.
Stinkbugs or IRS agents? It's kind of hard to tell them apart.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-nine-pound-gambian-rats-invad...
[shudder]
I thought the largest breed of rats in the world were all located in Washington D.C.
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They've spread to Wall Street.
Correction: They spread FROM Wall Street.
Stinkbugs a new American phenomenon? New pair of shoes? Baffling. Stinkbugs have been a part of rural Indiana life as I knew it for many decades. Hundreds in each wagon-load of soybeans or wheat. A new pair of shoes?!? City folks crack me up.
These stinkers are new. They were first found in 1998. I said that in the piece?
quote:
What's new about them? They look like the same old stinkbugs I remember...
Agree! I remember catching stink-bugs as a kid 45 years ago 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh.
We had them in Ohio when I was a kid in the 60s...
My stinkbugs smell better than the Bernank...I can smell the stink of that sumbitch(and his cohorts) all the way over here in the US Midwest(Indiana now).
I remember stinkbugs too, in the Southwest in the 60's and 70's. They particularly loved our squash plants.
Stink bugs taste good.
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/special/creepy/bugpate.html#axzz1qKpdo1AB
Stink bug Pate?! KACK! KAAHTH! That is just wrong. So WRONG! I can sorta see the Alton Brown episode now.. "The secret to good stink bug pate is you have to feed the stink bugs corn meal for a week to clean them out."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCEzSCRKuZ0
BTW: Last photo is Bansky grafitti and from a Canal in London. Exactly the same kind of crap we are bombarded with on a daily basis to make us 'believe'. Think of how you felt when you saw that. Doubts, guilt, most powerful kind of human emotions. You are still thinking about it now even if you know it is a staged piece of artwork.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/dec/21/banksy-copenhagen-reg...
I liked the Stink bug reference.
Stink bugs have been around Texas for decades - and I agree with whomever said they do not smell that bad, in fact, I always thought "stink bug" went a little too far as a name for them. The China connection is pure BS, unless of course, they've been counterfeited.
The Fed chairman, or goat, as he is referred to above, is just that, a goat. He is useless anywhere there is anything of substance.
They do not smell that bad. My wife thinks many of my pipe tobaccos stink way more than any stink-bug.
Stink bugs have been around Wisconsin all my life. Nothing new. Is this a new strain/sub-species or something?
This is the BMSB (brown marmorated stink bug) and it is an import from China. It has no known natural enemies in North America, except my boots. I don't think they smell that bad, but then again, it depends where the boots have been...
I gave up growning pumpkins because they peppered the surface with thier eggs. When I stopped growing them they switched to my tomatoes. Now, that's effing WAR. Unfortunately there is no approved organic pesticide, except for the nicotania broth mentioned above, and even that's debatable.
I will go back to growing pumpkins as a kind of sacrifice (and burn the crop). This is what I have been doing with Edamame - the Japanese beetles desend on those plants, and they self-concentrate so they can be collected and disposed with a shop vac more easily.
We have the marmorated stink bug and they do have natural enemies - spiders. We have cellar spiders and black orb spiders on patrol and I have pictures of their webs full of dead stink bugs. I watched one get caught by a spider and it was epic!
The wikipedia article says that praying mantises and some spider species will attack them. It also says that several species of parasitoid wasp have been documented attacking the eggs.
Looks like I'll need to do a little research to see what plants attract parasitoid wasps and plant them among my garden.
I have not seen any BMSB carcasses around, and I sure would like to see something - anything - eat those suckers. To an extent I am relying on Rutgers University ag advice and my own experience. Not denying either of your reports. I do have a neighbor raising chicks and she's determined to "train" them to eat BMSB's by introducing them into their pen. And I am aware that there are experiments ongoing with predatory insects including wasps.
There is a guy locally that builds traps made from 2 sheets of cardboard spaced by half-inch strips of wood. He hangs these outside and the bugs seem to be attracted to the small space (hence the wall problem). Twenty-four hours later he opens the traps and quickly dumps the suckers in a pail of kerosene. That's too labor intensive for me.
BB didn't 'save' anything, of course
Glacier National Park will have a glacier again during your lifetime, they recede, grow, come, go naturally. Heck, where I grew up in the midwest was under a solid ice sheet until around 10,000 years ago (in other words, only 100 old-timer (centurian) life-spans ago), and our home sat atop a glacial moraine. http://www.backyardnature.net/g/ice-ages.htm
Stink bugs are only around 1/2" long, and there seemed to be fewer of them here in DC in 2011 than prior years. I'll bet in a few years we don't see too much of them
why don't you just google "how to get rid of stink bugs?"
"...Nicotine will also kill stink bugs when sprayed on them. To make your own spray crush up about 10 cigarettes in a half gallon of water and let it sit over night. Strain the solution through some cheesecloth saving the liquid and adding a teaspoon of dish soap to it. This can be sprayed on plants and it will kill stink bugs quickly, just be sure to thoroughly wash any edibles you get it on and to not get it on yourself."
like the part about sunflowers (see article) - or color yellow - attracting them. and the pherome yellow strips garden supply stores carry. and dropping them in soapy water to kill them. always love kills where soapy water's involved. Kind of like a pre-cleanse to die ritual or something. lol... "I'm gonna clean ya 'fore I kill ya!" hahahaha
http://www.ehow.com/how_5126114_rid-stink-bugs-home-garden.html
You can grow your own tobacco to use as an insecticide. That way you stay organic, pay less taxes, and have an interesting plant to look at in the garden as well. Nooo, you don't smoke it... you smoke other garden plants...
Nicotine is a great insecticide true, but do not use cigarette butts or whole cigs (at 30 cents each? are you made of money? Why not just throw coins at the damn bugs?) soaked in water to spray around your house or garden. Cigarettes carry tobacco mosaic and it will destroy a lot of your plants. Boiling does not kill tobacco mosaic, and I am unaware of anything that would make spraying nicotine safe. Never allow tobacco or smokers who have not previously washed their hands to touch your marijuana plants, they are very susceptible to tobacco mosaic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_mosaic_virus
Living near fields where tobacco is planted keeps them away pretty well. Fruit trees in our area did really well because of all the Amish tobacco planted in the area.
"you'll need a new pair of shoes". Bruce, that's about the weakest, most fainthearted thing ever uttered by some limp wristed cement-canyon dweller that I've managed to find yet.
Besides, anyone in who knows sweet understands that wet, rotten soybeans are the worst thing to step in. Those stink so bad you'll rub fresh cat shit under your nose like it was mentholatum.
pig shit has to rate right up there towards the top...takes awhile to get that smell off of you.
LOL! You are correct, sir!
The only things harder to eradicate than stink bugs are gold bugs (no relation).
We've been invaded by stinkbugs for several years and they do damage fruit crops. Bruce is getting a little carried away by saying you'll need to replace shoes if you step on them. The smell isn't that bad and the odor doesn't last very long. If you leave the spiders in your house alone and let them do their job, they'll feast on them all winter long and you can collect the dried up shells with a vacuum cleaner.
Our state has asked residents to kill 'em all so they can't get outside to breed in the spring. Challenge accepted! Like many flying things from China, they're slow and clunky. I collect them from the window panes in an empty Crystal Light container. When I have a good payload, I add a few drops of rubbing alcohol to the container. Then they get flushed down the hopper. No muss, no fuss, and no odor that way.
only an idiot would not be able to comprehend the scale of natural events be it solar or geologic..try educating yourself on the major componets of our air. and which (hint watervapor) control heating energy retention.
co2 is what % of the above and what % of that does man produce? the numbers tell the tale of a fable foiested on gullible hicks such as mono.
Numerous solar flares this year, the major cause of global temperature changes.
Humans are really pretty insignificant when it comes to the climate, but we cause lots of problems on the surface.
Our mobilitiy causes old species new problems and allows species to hitchhike to a new environment - think Dodo birds or the American Chestnut (decimated by a fungus brought to the U.S. in lumber and/or transplants from Europe).
Our arrogance and narcisissm make us feel omnicient, therefore, whatever we do has a much larger effect than reality (the world revolves around us).
Stewardship and conservation certainly; however, we cannot stop solar flares, earthquakes, or the consequences of being mobile.
Bernanke the stinkbug - yes. He is a symptom of the disease, not the cure. I still can't believe that Atlantic cover is real.
ebworthen said:
Imagine the horror show that will ensue when the unintended consequences of genetically modified organisms begin to express themselves in a noticeable way.
I hear you.
I do not believe GMO's are a good thing, quite the contrary.
However, we have jumped on the merry-go-round of procreate and eat or starve, or kill and eat; either requires OIL.
We are on the train, we can't jump off. This is a separate issue from "Global Warming" and falls under stewardship and sensible living; the train we have fallen off of as a result of being, well, human.
Stewardship and common sense, yes.
Hysteria and chasing our tails, no.
Barf! "Hero" my ass, more like a "ZERO." Here's another great one from our clueless mass media:
Rubin, Greenspan & Summers | Feb. 15, 1999
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19990215,00.html#ixzz1qKQWGMRQBruce, does this mean that you coming out of the closet and are throwing your hat in with the warmists? Please go on record on this because when the rising oceans and melting poles continue to not happen like it haven't for the last 10 years then we would like to be able to identify you as one of the warmist pushing fascist globalists. Every time we drive past a vista ruining, bird murdering, wealth sucking windmill created by the fusion of greeny-fanaticism and corrupt government, we will be able to reflect on you. Every time our electricity bills and the price of a tank of gas goes up, we will get warm fuzzy feelings thinking "ah, that Bruce, he helped make the world better".
The real point here is that the Warmist "scientists" are like Keynsian "economists". Thier primary objective is the complete take over by the progressives. "Climate Science" and "Economic theory" are merely the means to this end, just like the useful idiots that believe in and propagate these scams.
The Northwest Passage that Henry Hudson died trying to find will be open this year, as it has for the last several, for the first time in human history.
Ice melting at the poles is a fact. Fox News saying it doesn't exist won't make it go away.
While its true that Miami will be above water for awhile yet, that's because the glaciers in Antarctica take a very long time to melt.
Global warming is a fact, not a hypothesis. Thermometers don't lie. Get with reality.
Human history? You mean the last four thousand years or so and what little of that back then is due entirely to NON HUMAN CAUSED GLOBAL WARMING which allowed man to evolve and develop agriculture, which allowed him to settle in one place rather than live as nomadic hunter gatherers, a life that did not encourage lugging around clay tablets and thus the fact that there is any history at all is due to warming that was both natural and cyclical. I will admit that it is possible that in the 140,000 cold/warm cycle man has probably added enough CO2 to shave ten years off the warm period before the cold sets in again, we may speed the cycle up by as much as a century, but you do not know, and I know you do not know because I studied meteorology in college and have followed the subject closely for decades, if I don't know and climate scientists do not know then I know you sure as shit don't know.
Ahhhh I forgot, never question the catechism of another man's religion.
Um, the melting poles are a well researched and documented fact. It's only whether or not elevated CO2 is the reason is what's questioned (but not questioned by 95% of climate scientists).
I'm not smart enough to answer the question on climate you pose. I don't think the "experts" have the answers either.
So I'm not "out of the closet", but I'm not in the closet either.
Have you been to Glacier National Park recently?? There are no glaciers at all anymore. There was 15 years ago. Stuff like this, that I can observe, does trouble me. Something is going on. What is it? Is it something that will reverse back to trend line, or are we rapidly warming? Are humans contributing to this? (I don't know).
It's normal to be intrigued by changes. But be careful not to fall in the sensationalist category. Here are some history records, so you can make up your mind - not about the question of understanding climate, but human behaviour.
http://www.real-science.com/below350-org
(starting from the bottom is much more interesting than from the top of the page)
Please do you own research on the subject, I'm sure you're wise enough to read between the lines and understand what's the real point of the warmists: scare people to make them "buy" the "solution" (which is... well, I'm sure you know better marketing than me).