The luck of the Irish to ya!

And a bug update.

The garden is showing us a wonderful example of ecosystem equilibrium in action:

 



 














Old broccoli full of aphids for a few weeks now – and along have come the ladybirds to feast on them J.

Our house, too, is progressing to an ecosystem in equilibrium.  We had noticed new bugs in the house (these ones fly and are bigger), so Jye (ecological pest control) came and took some samples to post off to the Ag Dept – and here is what we have now:

•          Foreign grain beetle/mould beetle (Ahasverus advena)

•          Predatory pirate bug (Anthocoridae) – feed on other insects, mites and eggs.

•          2 x Mites:

Laulapidae – Large (1mm) predators of insects and other mites

Tydeidae – Scavengers (~0.5mm) feeding on fungi and remains of dead invertebrates

So – predators of the barklice – should mean they are slowly getting eaten out of existence! 

My big question of course was “What eats these bugs then?!”  I did a bit of research on the net, and spiders seem to be the go – plenty of those in the house too (though I did just vacuum them all up this morning… it was time to clean up the quite large webs they had spun…they will come back…).

Don’t you just love it when your home is a science experiment in action ;-)?!

I love bugs – I really do.  I appreciate the teachers who have taught our kids about mini-beasts.  I appreciate all that bugs do in our world to pollinate flowers so we have food, to compost and clean up, to provide entertainment in their antics.

But…

I do love it so much more when they do all that outside and I only have to be involved as I choose.  How selfish of me!

I am having to remind myself that we are imposing our environment into theirs – and I will need to bide my time until a new equilibrium is reached where we happily co-exist.

I had to remind myself that finding two types of spider and two types of black bugs on the silverbeet you have picked for dinner is fine!!

And so…the Dept of Ag have told us we have barklice in the house.  A slightly bigger relative of booklice – or the same thing depending on local naming.  And of course, they are not really lice, but arthropods (like earth-bound crayfish!).  There is always good news though, isn’t there?  Since it is known that they feed on microscopic algae/fungi/mould associated with plant stuffs, they are a good indication of too much humidity in an indoor environment – so we are grateful they have brought that to our attention.  Unfortunately for them, knowing this now means we will do something more about it – and their ‘perfect home’ will be uninhabitable for them – but perfect for us!!  We have already ordered a dehumidifier online (not a one single one available locally L) – and they should die off within a few days of us plugging it in. 

I put our temp and humidity gauge in the house over the last weekend – and we are averaging about 17^oC inside at about 78% humidity.  It does feel quite nicely warm compared to the outside temp of about 12^o.  But indoor air humidity should be around 30-50% according to asthma guidelines – so we have quite a bit of moisture to pull out of the air – and help those walls dry out!!  Last nights' reading was down to 68% humidity - and it was a rainy, wintery ol' day - so hopefully those damp absorbing granules are already working too!

Wish us luck!  Pray!!  Send good vibes!  We could do with this going well for us.

Oh, and a lousy house is not because of the strawbales!  These bugs love any humid house and have been found in many a pantry (plant) foodstuffs or even new houses after ‘standard’ builds due to the moisture in plasterboard before it has dried out.