A few questions about nematodes

[VagPuncher]

Very new to organics, so please be patient.

1) Can I buy and mix these into my soil even if I don't have any bugs?

2) Am I correct in assuming that I mix these in to the soil?

3)Will the die if no pests are present? Is that there primary source of food?

4) What pests do they feed on?

5) Will a bug bomber such as Doktor Doom (pyrithieum) also kill nematodes?

6) Is it possible for them to get out of the grow area and go in to my carpet?


Eager mind willing to absorb all knowledge on PREVENTION of pests.

 

[habeeb]

I'm a noob so i'll give it my best . I'm sure your talking about predator nematodes for fungus gnats?? do you have pests??

1. sure, you could buy diamonds and mix it in your soil

2. you water them in, maybe you could cut a square of the sponge and mix it in ??

3. no clue

4. " They attack and kill more than 250 different insects, including Fleas, Thrips, Fungus Gnats, even insects as large as Cutworms "

5. I just looked at that doctor doom stuff, I would avoid and use products like neem oil and the sorts, that stuff looks lethal

6. Im sure they would die, but I'll leave this to pros

 

[CT Guy]

What's the reason you want to buy nematodes? Why not just grow your own in some EWC. Adding baby oatmeal will increase the amount of bacterial feeding nematodes in your compost.

Are you referring to predator nematodes?

Are you growing in soil?

Is this strictly as a means of prevention? You'd be better off using areated compost teas and good soil management as a means of preventing pathogens and pests.

 

[VagPuncher]

What's the reason you want to buy nematodes? Why not just grow your own in some EWC. Adding baby oatmeal will increase the amount of bacterial feeding nematodes in your compost.

Are you referring to predator nematodes?

Are you growing in soil?

Is this strictly as a means of prevention? You'd be better off using areated compost teas and good soil management as a means of preventing pathogens and pests.

I want to buy them and use them as prevention for pests.

 

[habeeb]

vag, are you saying you have pests right now and need them gone? or preparing for future?

 

[VagPuncher]

vag, are you saying you have pests right now and need them gone? or preparing for future?

Prevention.

To prevent something from occurring.

 

[CT Guy]

Are you growing in soil?

 

[maryjohn]

go canucks!

you in Van? damn I miss it. Except for the slugs.

 

[JackTheGrower]

I bought some nematodes cuz there are lots of gnats around and they were in there.

It looked like large perite and a bit of soil mix. I mixed that in with the soil and I hope those tiny little guys have enough to eat.

Honestly I couldn't tell ya if I bought live or dead or what.. I assume they are alive..

My gnats are reasonable and I am catching a few with yellow sticky traps.

Now that is the better prevention tool..

Lemme find a link http://groworganic.com/item_PIT860_Sticky_Yellow_Trap_5_Pack.html

Honestly that is the better advice unless to have a need to apply nematodes.

In my situation this year I added a bag of worm castings.. Good bag I understand as I had mushrooms and such.. Told it was good!

Anyway there were a lot of critters that came along. I also use materials that are more food then plant food.. So I had some gnats..

So I would suggest having some sticky traps on hand.. Hatching critters will hop of crawl on traps laid on the surface.. A very effective way to control gnats I might add and other flying types can get stuck.. Intruding adults often make it as far as a sticky trap around here.

The moral of the story is, in an Organic garden we don't aim for absolute control of life and death of critters. We want them to go elsewhere.
With the Gnats here.. I can't expect to get rid of them since I'm running buckets of organic peaches through my black solder flies and gnats are part of the food chain for them.. ( let them lay eggs )

So my advice is sticky traps.. Nematodes if you have a specific problem you wish to solve. Myself I liked the idea of playing with a jar of nematodes so I bought it.

Jack

 

[JackTheGrower]

What's the reason you want to buy nematodes? Why not just grow your own in some EWC. Adding baby oatmeal will increase the amount of bacterial feeding nematodes in your compost.

Are you referring to predator nematodes?

Are you growing in soil?

Is this strictly as a means of prevention? You'd be better off using areated compost teas and good soil management as a means of preventing pathogens and pests.

baby oatmeal? you mean like a box of infant oatmeal mix? Or just oatmeal..

Organic naturally..

 

[Clackamas Coot]

baby oatmeal? you mean like a box of infant oatmeal mix? Or just oatmeal..

Organic naturally..

Pulverized oatmeal, i.e. baby oatmeal.

Or you can take some oat berries and run them through an old coffee grinder. Lots and lots of microbes on grain seeds (wheat, brown rice, oats, rye, et al) which is what yeast cells feed on during the fermentation process in baking breads.

HTH

CC

 

[JackTheGrower]

Pulverized oatmeal, i.e. baby oatmeal.

Or you can take some oat berries and run them through an old coffee grinder. Lots and lots of microbes on grain seeds (wheat, brown rice, oats, rye, et al) which is what yeast cells feed on during the fermentation process in baking breads.

HTH

CC

Thanx Learn something every day.. And I was thinking about oatmeal..