welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

pests(the insect kind)

for pest control inside the house use boric acid powder which is sold
under a lot of different brands eg roach pruf
can find it at most large grocery stores garden nurseries or big box stores
sprinkle it behind refrigerators dishwashers stoves etc and
when the roach or insect or those dang scorpions crawl across the powder
their air hole (not their a hole) gets stopped up and they die
also use this at entry ways to our house

never use the roach sprays advertised on tv in our house

in the garden use diatomaceous earth (de) which is sold under lots of
different names
sprinkle this on leaves and on the base of the plants
use especially for pill bugs that try to eat tender or just planted
plants
when the bugs crawl across the de it cuts their exoskeleton and
they desiccate or dry out

for slugs can use sand or a product called sluggo
just sprinkle these around your plants
also can put down containers of beer around the garden
the slugs will crawl in there and die(they cant swim)

in the garden when get a mound of fire ants use grits sprinkled
on the mounds      the thinking is that they eat this and it swells
up inside them and they die      also it is fed to other ants and
the queen
also use product called spinosid which comes as spray or powder
sprinkle it around the mounds      it apparently will kill the mound
it is an organic green product

for catepillars and certain other insects use a product called bt
or bacillus thuringiensis
sprinkle it or spray it  on the leaves      when the insect eats the plants the bt
bacteria will kill the insect
be careful can kill butterfly caterpillars

there is an excellent bug book called 'texas bug book' by
malcolm beck and howard garrett that has recipes to use
and has good pictures of the different bugs
recipes are all organic

my wife she has no fear of bugs in the garden
when our chickens wont eat a bug that is a red flag to
be careful
once we got an infestation of theses gray hard shell bugs that
would fall off our plants when we walked into the garden
and would hide in the mulch
they could decimate a plant very quickly
grabbed some (with gloves on) and threw them to the chickens
the chickens would not come within 2 feet of the bugs
theres your sign

my wife she came into the garden and started to grab the
grey insects and then threw them in a bucket of water
she would grab them several at a time
would wear gloves whenever picked them up but my wife
she went bare handed

after a while got the above bug book and found a picture of the bugs
were called blister beetles
they produce a substance called cantharidan which can blister
the skin
in medicine that is used to blister up warts so that will fall off
after a few days

eventually got all those varmints  picked off
sprinkled flour on the plants which  clogs up their mouth pieces
when they eat the leaves and they die from starvation

my wife she survived without any skin injuries
my wife she has no bug fears except wasps and scorpions
they both have got her at night while sleeping

oh the joys of the country life

the organicgreen doctor

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