Neem: An Alternative to Chemical Pest Control!

I was reading Kerry's blog on Pilau Maile and the discussions about it, which brought up alternatives to weed control, which then brought up my growing interest in Neem. Although Neem is not a weed-killer, Neem is a great, natural way to get rid of pests (like that stinging nettle caterpillar maybe!), and it has a lot of other promising qualities to it. I learned a little about Neem in my Sustainable Agriculture class last year, but I'd like to know more as I plan to grow some to process for pest control on my own farm someday. So the question is:

What is Neem and why is it a good pest control product?

WHAT IS NEEM???
Neem is actually a tree that belongs to the mahogany family. It is native to India and Burma and grows in tropical to semi-tropical areas (hence the great excitement about growing it in Hawaii!). As you can see from the picture above, it is a tall tree with widespread branches and it is evergreen, which makes it a great tree to plant for year-long shade from the Hawaiian sun. Neem trees also produce white flowers that smell great. These flowers, in time, produce fruits that look kind of like olives.
To read a bunch of facts about Neem, click on this exciting link to Neem.

Check it out...Neem has SO many uses that I think it's even better than Noni:

• Neem can be used as a medicine to help with digestive disorders, diabetes, high cholesterol, cancer, and a lot more! And all of the parts of the tree are used in making medicines (seeds, leaves, flowers and bark) To see all the amazing medicinal purposes of Neem, go to Healthy Neem. It's freakin' amazing how many health problems Neem can aide. And here's some ways to use Neem right out of your yard to cure your own ailments: Home Uses
• 
  
• People from India use the Neem twigs to brush their teeth, and there are even Neem toothpastes on the market, so Neem is a cavity control product!!
  
• 
  
  
• Need to moisturize or scrub down? Neem oil is used in soaps, shampoo, balms and creams!

• People in India eat the tender shoots as vegetables, but apparently it's quite bitter. Kinda like Noni's awful taste I'm guessing. Why is it that things that are so good for you taste so bad???


• There is evidence that it can get rid of human pests too, such as head lice and scabies! So drink up your natural Neem insecticide, head-scratching children! Or maybe just put it on your head.

Okay, I have to stop listing things because there's too much to list...just go to the sites and sit in awe while reading of this amazing tree!

But most importantly and most economically useful is...
NEEM AS A PEST CONTROL PRODUCT
Now this is the coolest thing of all. Neem extracts can influence nearly 400 species of insects and it can kill insects that have become resistant to chemical pest products. Most Neem products are "broad spectrum," so they work on lots of insects, including mosquitoes! Neem is so natural that you can feed it to your cows (and it's medicinal for them too!), or even better yet, put the leaves in a watering trough so mosquitoes can't breed there! And for those of you who hate violence, Neem doesn't necessarily kill the bug in it's tracks...it incapacitates it in several ways. It deters insects, keeps it from eating and laying eggs, inhibits growth, disrupts mating, and causes chemo-sterilization! Yay Neem!!!

In my Sustainable Agriculture Class, I learned that you can easily make your own pesticide product from it by crushing the leaves and soaking them in a big garbage can of water for a while. I also found out that the Neem kernel can be crushed and can be added to the livestock grain to keep the pests out! The one discouraging thing about Neem is that it has to be applied regularly, and only repels mosquitoes in water for about 1-2 weeks unless more extract is added. But hey, better to do it regularly than to destroy the environment in one dose of chemical pesticides!

So I encourage everyone to look at the Neem Foundation website, because it has so much amazing information about this awesome tree! Now that I know more about it, I will be on a hunt to find my own Neem tree to plant!

Save the environment from pollution...plant a Neem Tree!!!

The Dreaded Flesh Eating Bacteria

HILO BAY? YIKES!!!

I just recently learned that this past friday the 12th, about 2 million gallons of partially treated sewage spilled into Hilo Bay. Yikes! Apparently a failed alarm and pump system caused the sewage to bypass a few necessary treatments before draining back into the ocean.
http://www.hawaiitribuneherald.com/articles/2007/01/14/local_news/local01.txt
They found out later in the week that bacteria levels were acceptable (as the sewage WAS partially treated), and people could swim in the water again by Monday, although I'm sure it had many lasting damaging effect on our marine life.

Learning of this in a casual conversation in one of my classes brought up the discussion of flesh-eating bacteria, something that a lot of people are afraid of. What is flesh eating bacteria, what does it do, and how does someone get it? Prepare to see a yucky picture at the end!!!

Maybe first I should explain what bacteria is. Bacteria are microorganisms with ONE CELL (aka unicelluar). They are EVERYWHERE. Most bacteria are helpful or harmless and some are harmful to humans, and some of them live inside our bodies! They're pretty dang simple, as they don't contain any membrane-bound organelles or any nucleus (picture the inside of a hot dog, maybe?), but can fix nitrogen and cause serious diseases among other things! Amazing, yeah? Bacteria also reproduce by cell division, and they can double in population faster than you can read this blog. I could go on and on about bacteria, but let's just keep it simple for the sake of the overworked student. To go more in-depth, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria#Cellular_structure

THE DREADED FLESH-EATING BACTERIA
Flesh-eating bacteria is otherwise known as Necrotizing Fasciitis. And what exactly is this "Necrotizing Fasciitis?" Maybe this site will give you an idea: Necrotizing Fasciitis

Necrotizing Fasciitis (say that 10 times fast!) is a RARE bacterial infection that grossly deteriorates skin and the soft tissues under it. Fat and fascia, or the tissue covering the muscles, die at a rapid rate thus giving the common gruesome name "flesh-eating bacteria."

There are actually a whole bunch of different types of bacteria that "eat flesh." One of the most common types is the same bacteria that causes strep throat, called Streptococcus pyogenes. These bacteria cause mild infections that can occur if you swim in salt water or touch crustaceans or raw ocean fish with an open wound, and you are more likely to become infected if you have cirrhosis, a chronic liver disease.

HOW THE HECK DOES IT GET IN???
Obviously, "flesh-eating bacteria" gets in through open wounds, but it can also get in through a muscle strain or bruise! Sheesh...this bacteria can be really persistent. It can also be passed from person to person through close contact such as kissing, but it's not very likely. Remember, this bacteria is rare, so don't freak out every time you pucker up.

DOCTOR, HOW MUCH TIME DO I HAVE?
Not much. You better get to the hospital ASAP. About 30% of people who develop the infection DIE. HEY NOW, DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY! Most people don't get it as it is VERY rare...let me say this again...it is SUPER rare. And even if you were so unlucky to get it, most cases are mild and can be treated with antibiotics if you get treated quickly.

So now we've learned a little bit about a very harmful type of bacteria. I really go off the subject from blog to blog, don't I? I hope I didn't scare you all. I really thought the topic interesting because so many people talk about it but don't really know what it is. I wouldn't recommend teaching about flesh-eating bacteria to an elementary school class, though!!!

What makes ants more than just pests?

Last night I watched The Ant Bully, which I highly recommend, and it made me realize that there is more to ants than their pesky habit of getting into our sugar jars and sweet foods. So what is so fascinating about ants that makes them the perfect main characters for a children's movie?

For an exciting look into the fascinating ant kingdom, let your mouse do some clicking on this site: http://ant.edb.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/BE/Kingdom/0203/0203e.html

Most of us have heard the fact that ants can carry 25+ times their own body mass:

Ants are more than just bugs that get into our kitchens and infest our cookie jars. They are highly social insects that each have their own job in the colony. Did you know that ants constitute up to 15-25% of the total animal biomass?!?! Amazing! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant

LEARNING AND EDUCATION

One good reason for using ants in a children's movie, is that they can actually learn behaviors through interactive teaching. This is shown in the movie The Ant Bully as the child ants realize that the human's idea is better and decide to try it to win a competition. Ants don't just imitate, they are taught new skills by other ants.

"Knowledgeable forager ants of the species Temnothorax albipennis directly lead naïve nest-mates to newly discovered food sources by the excruciatingly slow (and time-costly) process of tandem running. The follower thereby obtains knowledge that it would not have, had it not been tutored, and this is at the expense of its nest-mate teacher. Both leader and follower are acutely sensitive to the progress of their partner. For example, the leader slows down when the follower lags too far behind, and speeds up when the follower gets too close, while the follower does the opposite." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant#Learning)

This interactive teaching is usually only observed in primates and a few mammals, but ants, those tiny little insects, can also learn from teaching each other new things! In other words, ants can tutor other ants in learning new skills!

ANTS ARE FARMERS!!!
In The Ant Bully, the ants had trained and herded these big huge caterpillar-looking things like cattle, and would drink sweet nectar from their rear ends...which is actually what ants do! These herded insects are aphids, which secrete sweet "honeydew" from their anuses that is remnants of plant sugars that they cannot digest. Ants love the taste of it so much that they actually "herd" aphids and protect them from predators! http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek010422.html

ANTS GROW GARDENS!!!

Some ants actually grow their own underground gardens! In tropical areas, Gardener ants (aka leaf-cutting ants) cut up large numbers of plant leaves, chew them into a mush, and put the mush in chambers in the nest. This warm, moist mush soon grows a white fungus that the ants harvest and eat! Not only do they grow it, but they constantly tend to it so that other fungi cannot grow like weeds! Wow. http://www.highlightskids.com/Science/Stories/SS1001_antsGarden.asp

These are just a few of the amazing reasons why ants make such good movie characters...and because the movie was so scientifically correct in so many ways, it made me realize that a section of this movie could be played before learning about ants as insects in a classroom. What a great way to expand knowledge and create interest in the field of science!!!