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Re: Christy's on Bt

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


. I think I read somewhere that BT even kills mosquito larva, but I
>>wouldn't know what to spray it on to kill them?
>
>Well, I don't know anything about Bt on mosquitoes.  Originally, Bt was
>billed as solely killing the larval stages of lepidopts (butterflies and
>moths).  In recent years, I have seen posts on the 'Net suggesting that it
>works on some beetles.


I know of three varieties of Bt---kurstaki, san diego, and israeliensis
(latest taxonomy may give different names) The first is the caterpillar
killer, effective against most butterfly and moth larvae. The second is the
beetle bopper, and what has been incorporated into the genetically
engineered Bt potatoes (the Bt corn whose pollen kills monarch butterfly
larvae is the first kind).

Third, Bt israeliensis, is effective against the aquatic larvae of
mosquitoes and black flies, and is available in these little floating donut
things called dunks for use in ponds, rain barrels, and the like...

A colleague of mine, Paul Maloney, who is an entomologist and a helicopter
pilot, participated in a program some years ago to reduce mosquito and black
fly levels around a Canadian Armed Forces base, with good success, using Bt
israeliensis....if I recall, they applied the toxin extracted from cultures
of the bacterium, and not live bacteria themselves....

Doubtless a bit of web searching will reveal much about all this....


Frank Teuton


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