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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dave Sill<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] confused trees and bees, FW: Season's Greetings from the Federation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 12:59 AM, spike <<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net" target="_blank">spike66@att.net</a>> wrote:<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>>…</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>We tend to notice when bees decline, but would we notice if other bugs went missing? My ants are gone without a trace. If some bug virus decimated the ants, how would we know it had happened? Perhaps I could talk the local hardware store out of some information on sales of ant poison and boric acid.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Spike, you should consider contributing to the National Phenology Network, <<a href="https://www.usanpn.org/">https://www.usanpn.org/</a>>.<br><br><o:p></o:p></p><h1><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>USA National Phenology Network<o:p></o:p></h1><p><strong><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>What we do:</strong> The USA-NPN developed <a href="https://www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook"><em>Nature's Notebook</em></a>, a project focused on collecting standardized ground observations of phenology by researchers, students and volunteers<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span>-Dave<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks Dave!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There is another factor in play here. My house had always had ants, outside, inside, everywhere except the kitchen of all odd things. The ants never really did go after the stored food, or seldom did. I kept them under control using boric acid and the usual local hardware store remedies, but it was imperfect, even though I used to spend over a hundred bucks a year on ant control. I had ants nest in an electrical outlet in one of the bedrooms. They were in the closets, in the bathrooms, everywhere except the kitchen where I use a lot of windex. They would go outdoors to gather food, then come in to sleep or whatever ants do at night. I had ants in my citrus trees, used to do experiments with them and so forth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>About four years ago, my neighbor came over, said he had met a guy who claimed he could rid the house of ants (my neighbor had an even bigger ant problem than mine) but we had to pay him cash and couldn’t ask any questions, Jose would take care of the problem. I refused, assuming he might use something dangerous, but reconsidered when my neighbor said he would not need to come indoors at all. I thought it over and forked over the fifty bucks in cash. I didn’t see what that man did. He showed up in a beat up white pickup, no advertising on it at all, he was here for about 15 minutes I think, did both houses, did everything outdoors only. The ants have never been back since. I assumed he was an illegal Mexican guy with chlordane, but I used chlordane back when people had stockpiles of it left over from the 1970s. I might be mistaken, but I don’t recall that stuff lasting for four years. The ants never recovered from whatever it was he sprayed. I haven’t bought ant control stuff since, and still have some left over, unused.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>From the citizen scientist point of view, that observation is important, but lacks detail. I might be able to get a soil chemical analysis of some sort, if I know approximately what I am looking for and can design my own qualitative analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>The extermination biz here in the states keeps plenty of proles in jobs, for a number of homeowners have them come in on a regular basis, and they do spray stuff indoors. All this time, there is some guy named Jose who can solve the problem for apparently years at a time, staying outdoors, all for fifty bucks and some mystery chemical. Oy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>