How To Control Fungus Gnats Indoors

Fungus Gnats are a common pest to the indoor grower or potted plant lover. With the expansion of indoor growing and the boom in both cannabis and hemp cultivation over the past few years, demand for effective, affordable control solutions is at an all time high. Watch the video below for some insights into quick and easy ways to get rid of fungus gnats in your growing environment.

As you can see, controlling fungus gnats doesn't have to be a chore. If you treat with nematodes early in the growing season, monitor effectively and manage populations with predators when necessary you will be fungus gnat free in no time. Try our Fungus Gnat Control Bundle to get what you need in one without the shipping costs!

Want more information about how to keep fungus gnats away from your grow? Click Here

What Else Was Happening in 1621?

Although Thanksgiving is still two weeks away, most Americans are deep in their travel/food/football planning. As I was firming up my plans, I had a thought: We know the story of the first Thanksgiving

The First Thanksgiving by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

(or at least one of the versions), but what were people doing in other places in the world that year? Here’s a quick tour of the world in 1621:

Tokugawa Hidetada

JAPAN– Japan was under the rule of a Shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada. Hidetada was the son of the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for 265 years (1603-1868). Tokugawa’s rule was notable for the extreme measures he took to control outside influences in Japan. Although Christianity had been banned under his father's rule in 1617, there were still Spanish and Portuguese missionaries in Japan openly converting individuals and building communities. Unhappy with this meddling in Japanese culture, Hidetada began executing missionaries and martyring believers. In 1622 alone he put 120 people to death for their religious practices. To further break away from outside influences, Hidetata took steps to severely limit the number of foreign vessels allowed to enter Japan.This time in Japan was depicted in the 2016 movie Silence from the novel of the same name by Shusaku Endo.  Draconian repression and isolationist acts aside, the Tokugawa shogunate was a time for peace and prosperity for many Japanese.

  

King Philip III

BRAZIL – Portugal rules over Brazil, with King Philip III of Spain and Portugal as its absolute monarch in 1621. Throughout its long colonization of Brazil (1500-1815), the mechanics of administration were always difficult. The country was just so big and its rulers so far away. In 1621, in an effort to get better control, King Philip changed it from the Governate General of Brazil into two states: State of Brazil and State of Maranhão. Presumably this helped, as Portugal maintained control for another 194 years.

PHILIPPINES – The Spanish ruled over the Philippines for 333 years (1521-1898). In 1621, there was a religious revolt known as the Bankaw (or Bancao) Revolt. The agitators were tired of the religious dominance of the Roman Catholic Church and wanted a return to traditional beliefs. The battles went on for two years, but the revolt was ultimately squelched and the leaders executed.

NORWAY – In 1621, Norway was in the thick of a long and virulent witch-hunting phase. In the years between 1593 and 1692, there were at least 140 witch trials in the small village of Vardø. These trials resulted in 91 found guilty and either tortured to death or burned at the stake. This is an extremely high number when the population of the entire county would have been about 3,000 people. The Vardø witch trial of 1621 was the largest trial of this period, with many people losing their lives. The last to burn was Kristi Sørensdatter, on April 28, 1621. In June 2011, the Norwegian government dedicated the Steilneset Witch Trial Memorial as an apology to those lost lives.

Tianqi Emperor (Zhu Youjiao)

CHINA – In 1621, China was living in the waning years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The end of this dynasty was the result of a combination of things that went unchecked and untreated over a long period of time: infighting and power-grabbing by civic officials, intrigues and interference by palace eunuchs, a growing and unsettled populace and a succession of inattentive and ineffectual emperors. The emperor in 1621, the Tianqi Emperor (Zhu Youjiao) was one of these inept rulers. He was just 15 years old when he took the throne (following his father's mysterious death after ruling for less than a month). He was illiterate and uninterested in state affairs; he preferred to do carpentry. Before long, the scheming eunuch Wei Zhnogxian and the emperor's wet nurse,

Wei Zhnogxian

Madame Ke, had made themselves de facto rulers. Wei raised up his allies and destroyed his enemies. Meanwhile, Ke went to extremes to keep him away from any other female influences – she imprisoned and starved to death his concubines. Unfortunately for this ambitious duo, the emperor died young in 1627. By 1628 they were both dead; Madame Ke was beaten to death in an interrogation in 1627 and Wei hung himself in 1628.

Richard Jobson

AFRICA – Africa in 1621 was a hodge-podge of kingdoms, empires, sultanates and colonials. There was also any number of Europeans traipsing around the continent looking for adventure, riches and fame. One such explorer was Richard Jobson, who traveled 400 miles up the Gambia River in 1621 and 1622. He was seeking gold (which he did not find), but what he brought back was a unique chronicle of the then-unknown African interior. He was also an early voice against slavery. On his return, he wrote The Golden Trade Or A Discovery Of The River Gambia And The Golden Trade of The Aethiopian (1623), which can be read in its entirety here.

In 1621, many parts of Europe were fighting over religion, people in colonized areas were either trying to keep control or get out from under it and others were deeply entrenched in traditional ways. And then there are the areas where little is known about what people were doing. Those people may have been the lucky ones, no outsiders had gotten to them yet.

Submitted by Pam

Day of the Dead: So Much More Than Cool Makeup

Aztec Dancer - Day of the Dead in Los Angeles

Modern Americans have adopted the Mexican tradition of the Dia del los Muertos (Day of the Dead) into mainstream culture. Not too many years ago, it would have been difficult to find skulls and skeleton-embellished clothing readily available beyond Halloween. Today, commercially made items can be found everywhere from a nationwide chain like Party City to designers like Alexander McQueen. There is even a website that features everything skull and skeleton related for your accessorizing, décor and clothing needs.

A sure sign that the Day of the Dead is been taken over is that Disney made a movie about it – Coco. Fortunately, the creative forces behind Coco took great care to appropriately depict the cultural and spiritual event that is Dia de los Muertos. For its first movie to depict a minority character in the lead, they consulted extensively with the people whose traditions they were depicting. The result was a beautiful movie filled with heart and music that deserves the recognition it receives.

Mictecacihuatl - The Lady of the Dead

Celebrating death as a continuous part of human existence and remembering those that have passed on has extremely deep roots in Mexico. These traditions date as far back as 1800 BC and were practiced by indigenous people throughout Mesoamerica. The origins of contemporary Day of the Dead celebrations lie with the Aztecs, who believed in a complex and vibrant afterlife (for a fun few minutes in their underworld, click here). They had been celebrating death and harvest rituals for more than 500 years before the Spanish arrived in 1519. The Spanish quickly and aggressively converted indigenous people to  Catholicism, but many ancient traditions were tightly held and the Spanish wisely allowed the native people to meld the two belief systems. The result is a form of Catholicism that is unique to our continent. Modern Mayan and other native peoples continue their singular celebrations to this day. This includes the Pascua Yaqui tribe here in Tucson, whose observances last two days (Nov. 1-2) and are tied to All Soul's and All Saint's days.

La Calavera Garbancera (Catrina)

One of the most iconic symbols of the Day of the Dead is that of La Calavera Catrina (or just Catrina). This image was the creation of Jose Guadalupe Posada in 1910. Inspired by the Aztec Queen of the Underworld, Mictecacihuatl (The Lady of the Dead), Posada’s skeletal beauty was new and yet familiar to the Mexican people. Catrina was born the same year that the Mexican Revolution broke out in response to the long and corrupt dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. The Diaz regime was characterized by a push to modernize Mexico by embracing all things European, further enriching the elite on the backs of the poor. Posada was a lithographer and his work was distributed widely among the huge numbers of illiterate workers. He named his creation “La Calavera Garbancera”, “Garbancera” being a derogatory phrase used at that time for native Mexicans who tried to pass as Europeans. When asked about Catrina, he is said to have replied, “We are all skeletons”. Their fight for a new Mexico was long and bloody but ultimately successful and Diaz was overthrown, in large part because the poor and disenfranchised were able to rally under symbols like Catrina.

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park by Diego Rivera

Catrina was further entrenched in Mexican culture when the painter DiegoRivera painted the dandified skeleton into his masterpiece “Dream of a SundayAfternoon in Alameda Park” (1946-47). In the massive mural depicting 400 years of Mexican history, Diego placed Catrina front and center, with Posada on one side of her and himself and his wife, Frida Kahlo, on the other. Diego was a firebrand with strong Communist ties and he greatly admired Posada and looked up to him as a mentor. Even 35 years after she was created, the symbolism of Catrina was important enough to Rivera to make her a focal point in what was arguably his most important work.

In this time of picking sides and divisive politics in our own country, it seems important that we take a moment to look around and recognize what has come before us to get us to where we are now. Struggles for a better life and to work with dignity have taken place over and over again since mankind started creating societies. The crass commercialism of many American Day of the Dead events ignores the depth of culture and belief that these celebrations were founded on. I, for one, enjoy the day much more knowing the history behind it.

Submitted by Pam

Decomposition - Nature's Recycler

Decomposition In The Forest
Image Credit: Jonny Hansson

Decomposition gets a bad rap. We often think of rotten smells, gross imagery or any number of haunting thoughts when the word is uttered. While it is true that decomposition can be a stench-riddled, foul process, the truth is that it is pervasive in our everyday lives. From the microbiome on our skin to the fungal network in the soil, decomposition is occurring constantly. More importantly, it is the foundation for the future of the biological world.

In general terms, decomposition is the process of taking complex organic matter and breaking it down into simpler organic material. Think of it as a simplification and recycling process.

Consider how intricate the human body is with all the different systems and complex molecules driving the organic chemistry that fuels us. Now think about what happens when we die. All of that is still there, floating around, but stuck in our balloon of skin. How does the energy and matter that we consist of return itself to the ecosystem around us? The answer is, it doesn’t. Decomposition returns it to the environment. It simplifies us to the point where organisms like fungi, bacteria and insects can use us…for food. Kind of grotesque, but fascinating at the same time.

The same thing happens when we see a fallen tree in the forest or compost our garden waste. It will take time, but the tree will be eaten away and repurposed for the next generation of plant life. Some of the next generation is likely to start before the tree even disappears (pictured above). Without decomposition, the world we live in would be unsustainable. Instead, the natural workings around us have figured out a balance between life and death for the continual replenishment of the ecosystem we share.

Organic matter develops to inevitably return to where it came. The cycle is constant. Our organic waste (animal, plant or otherwise) feeds the building blocks of nature – the bottom of the food chain – allowing everything else to flourish. Matter is conserved and recycled to make the most of what this planet has to offer. It may get grimy or a bit uncouth, but decomposition is essential for the world and part of the foundation upon which we stand.

- Contributed by Sterling

Corpse Flowers and Other Beautifully Strange Plants

An extraordinary thing occurred this past April in Tucson, Arizona. Right in midtown, a corpse

Corpse Flower

flower bloomed at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. These rare flowers carry the scientific name of Amorphophallus titanum. This Latin name comes from three root words: amorphos (without form or misshapen), phallos (penis) and titanum (giant). It’s easy to see where they are going with this; a fact that was not lost on Sir David Attenborough, the English naturalist. For his BBC documentary, The Private Life of Plants, he coined a more benign name – titan arum. In their native Indonesia, they are known as bunga bangkai.

Corpse plants are huge; growing up to 12 ft. in the wild, with cultivated ones generally between 6-8 ft. However, back in 2010, a man in New Hampshire grew a 10 ft. 2¼ in. flower and won the Guinness World Record for the tallest bloom.

While their sheer size is impressive, it is the powerful smell of a corpse flower that makes a lasting impression. It takes many years, sometimes even a decade, for these flowers to build up enough energy to bloom. Once they are at about 98°F (about the same as the inside temperature of a mammalian body), they burst into a bloom that lasts no more than 48 hours. Working with such a small window of opportunity, the corpse flower amps up the enticement for carrion insects and others pollinators by emitting a stench that they will respond to. The smell gets ranker the longer the bloom lasts and it and has been compared to decaying meat, limburger cheese and poopy diapers. With the warmness of the bloom mimicking a newly dead body and the large spadix serving as a beacon or chimney of sorts to spread the odor more widely, the corpse flower has all the bases covered.

The corpse flower may be the tallest bloom, but the largest flower is the Rafflesia spp.

Rafflesia flower

These rainforest behemoths can grow as large as a meter (3.2 ft.) in diameter. Rafflesia has no leaves, roots or stems, it survives and propagates by parasitizing the Tetrastigma vine. See it in the wild here.

This beast of a flower is very similar to the corpse flower: it also hails from South East Asia, it blooms for a very short time and it emits a noxious odor for the same reasons. Both the corpse flower and the Rafflesia have something else in common: they are both disappearing in the wild due to habitat loss from logging, palm oil plantations and other human endeavors. Time is especially short for the Rasflesia as it has not been successfully cultivated.

Brain Cactus

As I read about the corpse flower and Rafflesia, the man-eating bloom from Little Shop of Horrors kept coming to mind. I would not be surprised if carrion-loving blooms were the inspiration behind the campy carnivorous plant. The following plants could also inspire any number of spooky stories:

Doll's Eyes

Brain Cactus (Mammillaria elongate f. cristata): This Mexican cactus does not always look like a human brain, sometimes it looks like a pile of writhing hairy caterpillars. Either visual is just kind of gross.

Doll’s Eyes (Actaea pachypoda): These “eyes” are really the berries of the White Baneberry plant. This plant is poisonous; but it is also used (carefully, I imagine) in traditional home cures for various ailments.

Lotus Flower Seed Pods

Lotus Flower Seed Pods (Nelumbo nucifera): These may look like comic aliens, but they are really just the seed pods of the sacred lotus plant. Apparently, looking at these pods is highly distressing to certain people who can’t abide the look of clusters of holes and bumps. This condition is called trypophobia and, yes,it's a real thing.

Monkey Face Orchid (Dracula simia): Many types of orchids resemble other living things. At one time, people saw fangs in the long, dangly parts of this flower; thus, the Dracula reference. I'm not too sure about the Dracula thing; but the variety as shown in this picture sure do have monkey faces.

Monkey Face Orchid

Chinese Lantern (Physalis alkekengi): This plant is invasive and poisonous, so it is probably not a choice for your backyard garden. But it is spooky-cool looking when the web-like pods surround the pumpkin-colored flowers.

Chinese Lantern

When looking at these plants, I can't help but think that Nature has a sense of humor.

                                                                      Submitted by Pam

How Pumpkins Replaced Turnips at Halloween

We can thank Irish immigrants for bringing us the tradition of having a Jack O’Lantern on All Hallow’s Eve. The practice dates back to ancient Celtic cultures when they carved scary faces onto turnips and potatoes. Once carved, the root vegetables were hollowed out and put on a windowsill with an ember placed inside – all this was done to ward off Stingy Jack and other evil spirits while guiding the good spirits to them.

The Legend of Stingy Jack

Stingy Jack was an Irish farmer who made a deal with the devil. A miserable old drunk, he reveled in playing mean-spirited tricks on anyone. On All Hallow’s Eve, he ran into the devil at a local pub. Jack tricked the devil by offering his soul in exchange for one last drink. The devil turned himself into a 6-pence to pay the tab but Jack snatched the coin and pocketed it with his silver cross. This rendered the devil unable to change back. Jack made a deal, he would only set the devil free if he promised not to claim Jack’s soul for 10 years.

Ten years on, Jack came across the devil while walking on a country road. The devil wanted to collect his due. But Jack, ever the conniving sot, replied, “I’ll go but before I do, will you get me an apple from that tree?”

The devil jumped up into the tree to retrieve an apple. Jack quickly placed silver crosses around the trunk of the tree. Once again, the crosses trapped the devil. This time, Jack only released the devil when he promised not to take his soul until he died from natural causes. 

The devil had no choice but to agree.

When Stingy Jack passed away, he was refused admission to the Gates of Heaven because he'd spent his stingy, tight-fisted life as a deceitful drunk. So, Jack was relegated to trying to enter hell. But the devil would not let him enter and sent him back to where he came from.

The way back was windy, scary and perpetually dark. Stingy Jack pleaded with the devil to give him a way to light his path. The devil tossed Jack and ember from the fires of Hell. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed out turnip – his favorite food and one he could easily steal. Since that time, Stingy Jack has been wandering the earth, without a resting place and with only his turnip and ember to light his way in the darkness.

The practice of warding off spirits with carved out vegetables spread beyond Ireland and Scotland to England, where they adopted the practice using beets. When the immigrants arrived in the United States, they found a plentiful supply of pumpkins and, although still somewhat messy, they provided a cleaner and more convenient vessel for the carving and for embers.

As a child, I remember that the night my dad carved our pumpkin was a big event. Much planning went into the plan for the face and the expression that would work best. Putting that pumpkin out on the porch with a lit candle seemed to signal the beginning of all of the light and food-filled celebrations that we had to look forward to in the coming months. It was both the end of summer and the beginning of celebrating the new and incoming possibilities of the high holidays.

Submitted by Deb N. 

Spiders & Their Webs - Our Eerie Friends

‘Tis the season that Halloween decorations pop up around the country. A festive favorite for many homeowners is the faux spider cobwebbing strung about to create a creepy, spooky aesthetic. While the seasonal decorations are a staple of Halloween, the real things tend to be far more orderly than most of that webbing and often give insight into what kind of spider or insect you are dealing with. 

Orb Weaver Spider & Its Web (From Deb)

Spider webs range from the orderly and planned spoked wheel-looking orb weaver webs to the black widow’s web, which resembles what I would imagine a spider web would look like after a long weekend in Las Vegas – disorderly and half-baked. Regardless of their apparent utility or lack thereof, these two varieties use their webs for refuge and to trap prey. Imagine a house that hunts your dinner for you. 

Martina the Huntsman Spider

Then you get to some aptly named groupings of spiders, funnel web and triangle spiders. Guess what their webs look like? While the designs are simple, the beauty is in that simplicity. Triangle spiders lack venom and thus need to use their fuzzy (not sticky) webs to smother their next meal. Funnel spiders, the hobo spider being one of them, build a one way street for prospective prey trapping them on a path to consumption. Being the conniving architects they are, funnel spiders plan ahead and make sure to attach an emergency exit for themselves allowing for quick flight from the premises. 

While spider webs can take us by surprise and be a hassle to remove, at least they give us an idea of where our spider friends have been lurking. Hunting spiders – wolf spiders, jumping spiders, huntsman spiders – don’t give us that warning. They will appear when they like and often when least expected. These guys also tend to be larger than some of their web-building counterparts, hunting down bulkier prey in the vast unknown of nature. The good thing is, you can befriend them like one of my colleagues, Cara, has done. Meet Martina the huntsman spider. 

The thing to remember about spiders and their webs is that they combine to kill a lot of the bugs we find to be nuisances. If they’re nearby, chances are good that the spiders are providing you a public service and free pest control. Remove them if you need to, but refrain from killing them on sight. Our eight-legged friends do quite a bit more good than bad in the grand scheme of things. 

Contributed by Sterling N.