Rex Teague wrote: > > On 26 Sep 02, Don/Eve Cruse wrote: > For those who might be interested in the real thing. Note no mention of the field broadcaster as made a central issue of by the NBR correspondant. GA
Harry O'Rouke, CEO, Waitakere City Council, PB 93109, Henderson Waitakere City. 9th July 2001 Dear Mr O'Rouke, After a discussion with a member of Mr Bob Harvey's staff I am writing to you with information regarding the work our company has done with the organic control of insect and mammal pests over the last 5 years. The method we have used in this work was suggested by the philosopher Dr Rudolf Steiner in 1924, and is called "peppering", due to the sprinkling of the burnt ash of the said pest over the ground 'as one would sprinkle pepper over a meal'. Since 1924 this method has been used in many ways with very beneficial effects. Regrettably it has also been the subject of some inadequate trials which have not produced positive results. In New Zealand two such trials have been carried out, one by the FRI in 1991 and a second I believe was carried out on Rangitoto island by DOC. We have not been associated with either of these trials and are on record criticising both the method used and the duration of these trials. Our methodology has been developed on from Dr Steiner's initial suggestions and now provides a superior result to that achieved by those engaged in the above mentioned trials. Enclosed is a letter from one of our clients, Tim Oliver of Cambridge, which outlines the effects he has experienced over a five year period. Approximately 50 orchards in the Bay of Plenty region regularly use 'peppers' for the control of Passion Vine Hopper. We have also peppered Fuller Rose Weevil this last season. Early results suggest good results with several orchards that had infestations last year - which prohibited their entry into the Japanese market - reporting no infestation this year. We have also peppered Gold Finches and Sparrows, which attack the flowers of the Gold kiwifruit, for one client with good results. Also enclosed is the preliminary results of a 200 ha. possum trial carried out in 1999 on the Coromandel Peninsular. This trial has confirmed the effectiveness of the method used for forested areas. Further counting is planned for the area to see the duration of effectiveness. Reports from people living near the treated area suggests far lower numbers of possums exist in the treated area compared to the surrounding areas, even to this day. This confirms earlier work we have done with possums, where four years control from one application of the pepper is not unusual. We understand your council is presently facing an infestation from an apple moth and that you are looking for 100% annihilation of this pest. Sadly we can not guarantee this level of eradication in the first season, however we can see a place for peppering as a longer term control of this pest and any other such as rats, possums, ferrets, stoats, rabbits etc you might be needing to control in the areas you are planning to spray. We understand you are planning to spray BT for the Apple Moth. The peppers would be compatible with this spray and a liquid form of the peppers could be added to the BT application. This would in effect be 'killing several birds with one stone. As the letter from Tim Oliver shows our methods and services are very cost effective for the returns gained. Dr Steiner suggested that Peppering works by making any insect or mammal of the designated species infertile if they stay in the treated area, so while we note a relatively immediate drop in the numbers of pests after application, from them moving out of the area, any that do stay are rendered infertile over the following period. This we have seen in work on Thistles, were no seeds are set in the flower heads of thistles which grew in the following seasons on the treated site. This process limits the area the insects have to breed in, while in the case of mammals allows for them to be moved towards sites they can be easily trapped in. This offers a significant advantage over poisoning especially for the presently lucrative possum industry. If you wish to discuss the use of our services further we can be contacted at the above addresses. Yours sincerely, Glen Atkinson -- Garuda Biodynamics - for BD Preps, Consultations, Books & Diagrams See our web site @ http://get.to/garuda
