Randy,

I don't pity those aphids at all--they have fulfilled their destiny and played their part in the "web of life". LOL

Sometimes it is hard to talk organics to people who just want a quick chemical fix, but I do believe the tide is turning, albeit slowly. Even here where I live, in the midst of the "old farmer and rancher" crowd who have long relied on heavy chemical intervention, I find, increasingly, that people are more and more willing to listen, learn and try organics now than they were even as little as 3 to 5 years ago.

One of my old rancher friends told me a couple of years ago that he was becoming more and more and more organic every year, and he told me that with tears in his eyes. Why the tears? He'd just been to the funeral of another good farmer/rancher friend he'd known all his life who'd died of cancer. He told me he thought that he had buried many, many such friends prematurely and he felt that a hugely disproportionate amount of them had died of cancer. He said he "knew in his heart" that all these cancer deaths were linked to the chemicals they all had handled and used their entire lives.

Another reason for the surge in organics, I think, is that you spend less when you raise your crops or animals organically. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, etc. can be very costly, and the larger your operation, the more you spend. It isn't that organic remedies are necessarily cheaper.....but, if you have your soil in balance and healthy, you find yourself treating fewer "problems".

Commercial operations seem slower to change than individual persons, but that's understandable since so much is at risk financially.

Keep talking organics and biologicals and you'll get through to even the most stubborn people. What will REALLY get through to them though is that they will see others using organics and thriving and that will motivate them.

One guy here who used to give me so much grief over my organic methods finally told me that I had to be doing something right because my plants were healthy and the yield was good. He said he noticed I harvested both earlier and later than he did, so something was working. So, you know, people do notice what you do and nothing succeeds like success.

I also think we have more highly-educated consumers who are concerned about the state of the world, the environment, etc. and many of them prefer to buy plants, food and animals that have been raised as naturally as possible. It is a very quiet revolution, but a revolution all the same.

As one of my old farmer friends told me, "I've been doing the same thing 45 years and I still have the same problems I had 45 years ago, so it ain't working." The real shame is that organic methods existed 45 years ago but no one much was paying attention then. At least they are paying attention now.

I am so proud of your adenium-growing friend, by the way. It really DOES take courage to change.

Dawn

Dawn,

There have been a few times in the past when the Oleander Aphid has popped up and started reproducing big numbers quickly on my Adeniums. I wanted so badly to grab the pump sprayer and shotgun my crop. I could literally see dollar signs being sucked right out of my pocketbook.

Instead of the sprayer, I now grab a jar and head out looking for lady beetles.

I do on occasion spot spray a plant or two. But since they are in containers, I can isolate and quarantine the plants in a cage or the garage where I don't have to worry about adversely effecting my moth population.

I'm thoroughly convinced the Silver Spotted Skipper is one of the local pollinators of Adenium blooms.
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I had a record number of seed pods last summer and I was seeing the SSS on blooms regularly through out the day.

Seed pods provide me with very cheap inventory and possible new blooms.

randy