[Terrapreta] Terra Preta and Ants

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy,

Thanks for this Interesting post.  This is another post I've read tonight from this list mentioning diatomaceous earth as an insect control method.  Others posts have mentioned earthworms thriving in charcoal amended soils.  Maybe the hard exoskeleton insects are susceptible to the chemicals in "volatile matter" on charcoal, in a way that segmented worms are not.  Segmented worms survive, while red ants do not in this "charcoal insecticide", maybe?  Larry Williams and Richard Harrd showed pictures from the other day of worms in their charcoal trials.  Some one said earthworms love charcoal in soil (a guy in Nebraska?).

It would be interesting to somehow hypothesis the effect of charcoal in soil on insect life and then conduct some simple experiments.
If beneficial organisms like earthworms are not preyed upon by red ants, in charcoal amended soils, then are there other insect predations which could be managed with charcoal "biotoxins"?  How would the charcoal amendments in soil would be used to manage the insect damage to plants and other beneficial organisms?

Regards,

SKB

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Saibhaskar Nakka<mailto:saibhaskarnakka at gmail.com> 
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> ; terrapreta-owner at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta-owner at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:06 AM
  Subject: [Terrapreta] Terra Preta and Ants


  <http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5764069465159656348&postID=553197572469186478>


  Dear All, 

  After the successful field trials in Alkaline soils http://e-alkalinesoilsterrapreta.blogspot.com/<http://e-alkalinesoilsterrapreta.blogspot.com/> , I have just started second season TP experiments on a small scale on our Roof top in small pots http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/<http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/>. The charcoal is exclusively from use of Magh-1 woodgas or smoke burner stove http://e-smokeburnerstove.blogspot.com/<http://e-smokeburnerstove.blogspot.com/> designed by me. I would like to share some of my immediate observations.

  One day after establishing pots and the seed with soil and charcoal and only soil. I have sowed brinjal seeds in the 6 with charcoal + soil and 6 only soil. To my surprise I saw that in the three control pots the seeds were eaten away by small red ants. The six pots with a mix of about 30% charcoal were untouched by ants. In TP practice the chances of germination of the seed with out any loss to creatures like ants is minimized. I thought this is the first direct benefit of using charcoal. On day two I saw that all the pots without charcoal are with small red ants. There is not a single ant in the pot with charcoal addition. 

  Although I love ants, to avoid ants eating away the seeds sown, we could always add some charcoal along with the seeds. Second important application is that in the Vermicompost pits some ants eat away the earthworms to avoid such problem and for value addition to the compost to create a habitat for microbes, we could as well add charcoal. 

  From web I learnt that those you want to avoid toxic chemicals are using charcoal and diatomous earth as a repellant for ants. For photographs please see the blog below. 

  http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/<http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/>

  I would like to know from your experiences what could be the other impacts in using Charcoal to the living things existing in soil.


  Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy
   
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