Ecology and winged creatures of the night

I don't think I have mentioned it, but we generally try to minimize our impact on the environment. For instance in our garden we don't and probably won't ever use any synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides.

This is partially out of an awareness of the impact such things have on the environment, but mostly this is motivated by the hope that we can learn to produce a lot of our own food without expensive, imported, and potentially hazardous inputs.

Many of the local farmers use an abundance of agricultural chemicals. Some don't, but the ones who are really making their living from agriculture apparently usually find that they have to spend the money to use pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. It isn't that they love poisons and chemicals, its just that they have not yet found a way to eliminate the costs of these synthetics and remain in business.

As I said, some don't. But those who don't often are involved in agriculture as a hobby, or for their own consumption, or for a small supplement to some other source of income. We are probably in one of those categories.

In time, as the price of these chemicals continues to rise, more and more farmers, the real ones, will attempt with greater earnestness to find a way to reduce or eliminate their use of synthetics.

One of the reasons to use wood in building our house, was to use locally obtainable materials as much as possible. Concrete blocks are made with portland cement and they don't make that here, they import it.

So we are building our house with local timber, here in the tropics.

Allow me to introduce you to the powder post beetle.

Powder post beetles were so named because the wood upon which they feed is generally eaten into a fine, flourlike powder. The Lyctus types feed primarily on hardwoods; the Anobiids prefer to attack softwoods, such as conifers. They can damage and, in some cases, eventually destroy (by completely tunneling) all exposed wood in houses, including furniture and paneling. Severe damage may take many years to materialize. A case of this kind usually results from failure to apply early remedies. Watch for "shot holes" in the wood.

The Lyctus powder post beetles are usually brought into buildings in lumber which has been stored in yards or at building sites. They may also be present in furniture, wood paneling, and firewood. Damage is usually to the starch-rich sapwood of large-pored hardwoods such as ash, hickory, oak, walnut and cherry. The hardwood floors of new homes are commonly attacked.

You can easily recognize the work of powder post beetles. When the adults emerge, usually in June, some species leave small holes about the size of a pin in the surface of the wood; others make holes the size of pencil lead. From these holes, a fine, powderlike brood of larvae carry on their destructive feeding. Normally, these insects have a 1-year life cycle; this means that the adults will appear only once each year. And because of this habit the larvae have a feeding period of many months.

from Michigan State University Extension

I have perhaps indicated that I was under a bit of stress lately. This was due to the fine rain of saw dust streaming out of tiny little holes in the posts and beams that hold up the roof and walls of our house.

A friend of mine or perhaps his wife grows a number of wild tobacco plants, mostly because the flowers are pretty. I begged a bag full of tobacco leaves from them and took them home and boiled up a great big pot of poison tobacco tea. I purchased a hand pumped sprayer and sprayed the posts and beams with tobacco tea in an effort to eradicate the powder post beetles. I tested it on a bunch of red fire ants. It seems to affect them on contact and they seem immobilized, possibly dead after less than a minute.

The tobacco tea may have made a small difference. There was possibly less powder post beetle activity after application. However, it was by no means effective.

A second, larger bag of wild tobacco leaves was obtained. The boys and I made a project of triple extracting these leaves into two gallons, enough to fill the sprayer.

The second application seemed to deter the beetles a bit more. But my friend's tobacco plants were starting to look a bit picked over and I did not want to ask for any more.

There is a plant growing in our meadow that looks tobacco like and an effort was made to identify this to species. I forget what we settled on, but while it was a cousin to tobacco, it did not have high levels of nicotine, the insecticide we were trying to extract.

It might have worked, if I had an unlimited supply of tobacco leaves, that might keep the beetles in check. But I didn't, not right now, although we took seeds from our friends tobacco plants and will try to grow that large supply for the future.

It might be possible to extract nicotine from cigarette butts, and I have an unlimited supply of those, but it seemed likely to be another modestly successful experiment, after all, if the filter is intercepting much nicotine from my cigarettes, then I am being cheated. I think the filter is primarily for tar removal.

Meanwhile the beetles were burrowing little tunnels through my beams.

I found myself walking to the agricultural chemical supply firm here in town. There I explained that something was boring tiny holes in the timbers of my house and leaving sawdust. The man nodded and grabbed a bottle of evil, unenlightened pesticide. It was Dursban.



Dursban, made by Dow, the same people that brought us dioxin, agent orange, napalm and rupturing silicon breast implants, has been banned in the US. Environmental groups succeeded in getting Dursban banned because it is toxic to humans as well as insects, frogs, birds, marine life and other living things.

Dow apparently unable to push this stuff in the US anymore, is now pumping the third world full of poisonous products containing Dursban, and it is an actual literal poison, in the same class of poisons as nerve gas agents.

I was outraged that Dow would peddle this stuff here. One can imagine why they do.

I asked what sort of personal protective equipment should be used, and the man said that I should use a mask and gloves and eye protection. I asked if people really do that and he said that people should use all the protection required on the label.

Amazed that such a product was available here, I asked how much it cost. To see if just anybody could walk away with a quart of deadly poison for $12, I purchased the bottle.



Incredible, they just took my money and let me leave with the stuff.

All children were chased from the premises. The workers, who spray poisons all the time in their fathers fields, were told they should probably leave, this was going to be dangerous. All food, drink, bedding and dogs were removed from the house and Rebecca stood ready in the shade of a tree about 50 yards away with Enki in case I needed to be driven to the hospital.

Per the instructions of the men at the counter, I mixed two ounces of Dursban per gallon of water. A drop of this turns water white, one could call it milky white, but somehow deathly white seems more accurate.

The workers stayed, to dispense helpful advice, from a distance, and I sprayed down all the posts, beams and rafters.

Within an hour dead powder post beetles were dropping from the wood.

I don't know if this will work. It is likely that I missed a few patches and will need to touch up with more poison. It is possible that this will be an annual problem, but with the main initial infestation knocked down, the tobacco tea may work as a preventative in the future. Also, I can buy boric acid here, I may be able to concoct some sort of boron based insecticide.

I am not thrilled about using such a strong pesticide, but under the circumstances it seemed necessary.

Enlil in chains:


Tonight we have a visitor. Enki had to be relocated from the insecticidal kill zone so he is spending the night in town.



Coincidentally, Enki had to be taken to the vet today. Several days ago a wound appeared on his neck. A circle about the size of a quarter where all the fur had been removed, and a mysterious bloody spot in the circle. I sprayed it with Gentian Violet but it was a mystery. Yesterday one of the workers told me that it was the bite of a rat bat. The rat bat, known to us as the common vampire bat is common here.

There are no known cases of rabies in Belize, however when there are, they apparently originate with the vampire bats. The vet gave Enki a rabies shot and estimated his age at six years old.