This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Diatomaceous Earth (DE)

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html



Rick & Mary Abbott wrote:

>  Norberto,
> >
> Diatomaceous Earth is ground up fossils and sea shells.  All natural.  It is
> a very fine powder. <snip> It is not harmful to humans to get a little in
> their diet.<snip> From what I understand, you just sprinkle it on the soil
> around your
> plants.  I was planning on trying it this year.

For what it is worth I am pasting on to this email  material I downloaded a few
years ago from some gardening list or the other.  I have been very leery of DE
ever since.

".. the agricultural DE is untreated and sharp. Though primarily
used for slugs, there is some use as a dust on plants with soft
bodied aphid and cotton scale, and certain larvae and loopers.
Besides piercing soft bodies it will also irritate and clog the
spiracles (breathing holes of insects) and can kill in that way.
Because of this, it is non-selective, so that means
it will affect beneficial insects as well...so, careful thought
should proceed indiscriminate use.
  ........................
..  DE will do you damage if you breathe it.  It will do the very
same thing to your respiratory system's  passages as it does to a
slug's belly when it crawls over it.  So talking about using it
in a squeeze bottle makes me very nervous.  Reminds me of the
time a local garden pretty-boy got on tv and recommended using it
in a hand-held spreader on cole crops.  We heard the next day
from a local emergency room about two people who came in coughing
up blood that night.  I have never again recommended it to
anybody without explaining how dangerous
the stuff is to breathe....
 ..........................................
 ..  be sure to wear a face mask . the kind that will not let the
small particles of the Diatomaceous Earth get into your lungs ... "
 .....................................
Ed Flynn


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index