Ignore the sweet face!

If you grow vegetables in the western U.S. then there is a very good chance are you are well acquainted with the Pocket Gopher, a creature that makes the average person say “ahhh” and the gardener say… well, I can’t say that here. A much smaller version of the Woodchuck, (Yikes!!!), found in the eastern U.S., the Pocket Gopher none the less wreaks havoc in your garden. If you want to get things in chronological order, you can jump over now and read about my earlier battles with this cute little devil of a pest at this link: How to Trap Gophers.  Then return here for a couple of posts summarizing this year’s battle.

First, here is a little background on how gophers came to be such a pest in my garden.  I have gardened here for 15 years.  For the first 10 of those years, we were bordered by a small commercial farmer growing vegetables for their farm stand.  Because they had 21 well irrigated acres and I had less than 2, the gophers seemed content to stay out of my garden, instead maintaining house and hearth in the farmer’s fields.  Five years ago, before the real estate market went belly up, this farmer decided they wanted to develop their land for housing.  Because a requirement of doing this is either they prove the land is not suitable for farming or that they have not farmed it for at least 3 years.  Because the land is very suitable for farming, they knew they would lose the first argument so they chose to stop farming in the hope that after 3 years they would be allowed to develop it.

What happened is that once their 21 acres was left to dry up each summer, the only irrigated land for the gophers is my garden.  Guess where some of the gophers decided to move to?  Anyway it has been an ongoing battle trying to grow vegetables without suffering huge losses from the gopher’s burrows and appetites.  In my next post I will detail some of the frustrations and recent successes I have had in this war with the little vermin.  I don’t use poisons, so I’ll have photos of the various traps I have tried, including the latest and greatest trap which saved, (I hope in time), this year’s zucchini crop.

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Gophers in the Garden

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Wordless Wednesday 7-28-2010

This week’s searcher was most likely thinking arts and crafts, but hopefully found the time to read the post their search engine dropped them on.  Yes Virgina, people are really made of corn!  Now if the local corn would just hurry up and ripen, summer would be complete.

Without further delay, this weeks search is:

“people made of corn cobs”

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Sunday Search of the Week 7-25-2010

For some interesting photos of parasitic wasps check out my last post!

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Wordless Wednesday 7-21-2010

Last weekend on a hike up a local trail with my oldest daughter, we encountered one of the more interesting displays of insect behavior I have ever seen.  At the top of the large, flat volcanic plateau or table there is a path about one mile long leading across to great lunch eating places on the other side.  While walking on this hard, dirt path I noticed a very interesting wasp, carrying a green inch worm, land on the dirt and walk over to a small hole in the ground. This wasp then stuck its head down the hole and pulled out a small stone which was evidently blocking the hole.  Then it returned to the alive but paralyzed worm and flew over to the edge of the hole.  Depositing the worm on the edge of the hole, the wasp then backed into the hole, pulling the worm down with it.  A few seconds later the wasp emerged, picked up the stone and put it back in the hole to block the entrance.  Then it flew off in search of another worm.

As amazing as this was to watch, what I soon realized was that there were lots of wasps doing the same thing.  Then all had their own hole and they all somehow knew how to get back to it every time.  The wasps would fly off into the distance, only to soon return to the same hole and repeat the process.  The holes all looked the same to me, spread out by the hundreds, only a few inches or feet apart, on a vast dirt path that looked the same in all locations.  How on earth do they home in on their specific hole?  Nature is amazing eh?

As to what was going on under ground, I can’t be sure without a nano camera, but here is my theory.  These wasps were probably parasitic wasps that use the worms as a breeding ground for their young.  This is actually a very common behavior, with the Tomato Hornworm being the most recognized victim of parasitic wasps.  Under the ground was a female wasp ready to lay her eggs in these little green worms.  The eggs would then hatch and feed on the insides of the worm, eventually emerging through the skin of the worm.  Remember the movie Alien?  Here are a couple more photos.  I wish I had more good ones, but it was too difficult to catch the wasp in the air with a worm or its stone.  A video camera would have worked well, but of course I had left that at home!

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Wasp Removes Stone From Hole

Over the years, coffee has become the poster child for “its good for you, now it’s not good for you, whoops it is good for you after all, or maybe not…” health advice. Now comes a study that shows drinking at least 5 cups a day, (less won’t help), can protect you from Alzheimer’s. This may prove to be just the latest coffee related health bulletin that ends up not being true, but it sure is an attention grabbing story. Some experts dispute the study’s conclusions, saying that other factors could contribute to the 5 cup a day coffee drinker having a lower risk. Interestingly though, some of the scientists involved in the research have become heavy coffee drinkers themselves.

Here is a link to a fairly complete NPR story on the coffee and Alzheimer’s research.  After reading it, I am not sure which is more scary, the thought of drinking 5 cups of coffee every single day, or the fact that there exists something called an “Alzheimer’s Mouse”, but the story is interesting.  In the end though, the conclusion seems to be that any reduced risk is minute.

I don’t know what to think other than to admit that it takes a certain type of person to be able to drink 5 cups or more of coffee every day.  These people may be different in ways other than their coffee habit and that may make them less susceptible to Alzheimer’s.  The other thought I had is that I think I read somewhere once that sleeping is important for your health.  If you drink 5 cups of coffee and stay up all night….

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Coffee Health News Again

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Wordless Wednesday 7-14-2010

This is a question I have been reading about since hearing it mentioned on a podcast I had downloaded.  I have learned a lot and rather than write another post detailing what it is, here are a couple of good posts I found that provide the specifics:

Futurism Now

Climate and Capitalism

Here in the U.S. Eco-socialism will have a tough time gaining a large following mainly because of our fear of anything with even the suggestion of the “S” word in it.  Admittedly some of the eco-socialist tenets are principles that will never be accepted in the U.S., but that should not prevent us from learning about the movement and adopting what is possible of the good ideas embraced by the eco-socialist community.

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

What is Ecosocialism?

Today’s post is by Anthony Vincent Samsel, a retired Hazardous Chemical Materials Consultant formerly with Arthur D. Little, Inc., in Cambridge, MA. Mr Samsel originally wrote this as a comment on one of my posts recommending that everyone stop using  plastic coated, non-stick, cookware.  I have written a few times about the dangers of non-stick coatings on cookware, but have done so from my own common sense viewpoint, not any real personal scientific expertise.  This post supports those of us that have been warning about plastic coated cookware, but does so from a very scientific viewpoint.

I am writing to all persons using non-stick cookware, persons involved in the manufacture of PTFE & Fluoropropylene copolymers and products made from Fluoropolymers such as Wire & cable, Non-stick cookware, appliances etc.  It has been known for many decades that the products of thermal decomposition from Fluoropolymers are very dangerous to human health. Unfortunately manufacturers of these products have been very diligent to hide and conceal the truth of that danger from the public.

In 2003 the publication known as “The Analyst”, a trade magazine, published a paper written by David A. Ellis et al, at the Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto in Canada. In that paper the authors identified some of the products of thermal decomposition from the plastic polymer PTFE aka Teflon and other trade names. The list of compounds is shown in Table one, below.

The authors did not consider gases such as carbonyl fluoride, hydrogen fluoride, & perfluoroisobutylene which are also released. Only the novel decomposition products were considered and these were found released starting at 250 degrees centigrade.  It should be noted that inhaled Carbonyl Fluoride Gas breaks down immediately when it comes in contact with the moist surfaces of the nose, throat and lungs. The decomposition products are Hydrofluoric Acid and Carbon Dioxide.  Hydrofluoric acid causes permanent scaring of tissue. In the lungs it causes Bronchiolitis obliterans, a condition often misdiagnosed and classified as Asthma (mild scaring) and COPD (severe scaring). The results are cumulative with exposure and worsening symptoms are irreversible.

Here is a section of the paper quoted below:

The use of F NMR and mass spectrometry for the elucidation of novel fluorinated acids and atmospheric fluoro acid precursors evolved in the thermolysis of fluoropolymers.

Authors: David A. Ellis et al
Department of chemistry university of Toronto”

Thermal decomposition of PTFE begins at 250 degrees centigrade or 482 degrees Fahrenheit. The following are some of the decomposition compounds cited in the scientific paper:

Table 1:

Chemical names, formula and acronyms of structures shown in Fig. 1 Structure Name Compound formula Acronym (PF-PerFluoro)

(I) Trifluoroacetic acid C2HF3O2 TFA
Pentafluoropropionic acid C3HF5O2 PFPrA
Heptafluorobutyric acid C4HF7O2 PFBA
Nonafluoropentanoic acid C5HF9O2 PFPeA
Undecafluorohexanoic acid C6HF11O2 PFHxA
Tridecafluoroheptanoic acid C7HF13O2 PFHpA
Pentadecafluorooctanoic acid C8HF15O2 PFOA
Heptadecafluorononanoic acid C9HF17O2 PFNA
Nonadecafluorodecanoic acid C10HF19O2 PFDA
Heneicosafluoroundecanoic acid C11HF21O2 PFUnA
Tricosafluorododecanoic acid C12HF23O2 PFDoA
Pentacosafluorotridecanoic acid C13HF25O2 PFTrA
Heptacosafluorotetradecanoic acid C14HF27O2 PFTeA

(II) These compounds are largely unreported in the literature. For simplicity we have elected to name them as the ether of the corresponding perfluoroacid.

(III) Dichlorofluoroacetic acid C2HFCl2O2 DCFA
(IV) Chlorodifluoroacetic acid C2HF2ClO2 CDFA
(V) Difluoroacetic acid C2H2F2O2 DFA
(VI) Monofluoroacetic acid C2H3FO2 MFA
(VII) Hexafluoropropene C3F6 HFP
(VIII) Chloropentafluoropropene C3F5Cl CPFP

In summary, toxic thermal decomposition products are cumulative at all exposure levels and should be avoided. They can be found in the blood and all major body organs. They have a particular affinity for brain tissue and may be the leading cause of dementia including Alzheimer’s disease. Do not believe the manufacturers they have lied for decades and are protected by certain Washington lobbyists……

The use of PTFE & fluoropropylene copolymers in heated appliances and cookware should be banned. The known health effects and multiple associated diseases are well documented in the scientific literature. Now is the time for action, for you and your family.

Anthony Vincent Samsel

—————————————————————————————————–

Thank you Mr. Samsel for your contribution to this very important topic.

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Stop Using Non-Stick Cookware

Original Article From: Healthy Living For People And Planet Earth

Wordless Wednesday 7-7-2010