Pest control...this is a first I've seen this. Anyone?

[Cadillactaste]

A flea collar for our trees!?! Anyone hear this option before?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Flea collars have been proven to not work on animals, so I doubt they will work on trees.

Ant lions require sandy, undisturbed soil. So unless you live on the inner dunes in NC, they won't work. They also don't "neatly devour each other".

LOL what site is this from?

 

[Cadillactaste]

Flea collars have been proven to not work on animals, so I doubt they will work on trees.

Ant lions require sandy, undisturbed soil. So unless you live on the inner dunes in NC, they won't work. They also don't "neatly devour each other".

LOL what site is this from?

A report from my somewhat "local bonsai club"... ?

 

[just.wing.it]

Lol!
Ant Lions!
I dunno if I'd want them digging their pits in my substrate!

I do put all spiders I find in my trees.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Lol!
Ant Lions!
I dunno if I'd want them digging their pits in my substrate!

I do put all spiders I find in my trees.

Lol we have pest control spray our basement after our son was bitten and had cellulitis. He sprays certain areas around the house...but I ban him from spraying around my trees...and perimeter of them. They won't hurt my trees...but I have a few spiders living among them...and seen no aphids this year at all. He laughed and said it was a first for him.

 

[rockm]

Err, um whoever advised you on the flea collar stuff is stuck somewhere in the 1970's. Flea collars USED to work through simple chemical action--enough toxicity released by the poison in the collar killed insects. However, that kind of flea collar is long long gone.

Modern flea collars depend on an animals fur to distribute repellants to provide continuous protection. the movement of the animal spreads the repellant through overlapping hair, skin oil etc. since a tree doesn't have fur, doesn't move this is ineffective and kind of ridiculous.

Also, if you're using a dog flea collar on the tree and have a cat, you could wind up poisoning your feline as they are very reactive to permethrin, the active ingredient in most collars these days...

As for the ant lion crap, yeah, THAT will work...this person ever actually SEEN an ant lion?

 

[BrianBay9]

The best pest control is a healthy, outdoor environment. Your trees get patrolled by birds, spiders, wasps, yellow jackets, praying mantis, lady bugs, etc. They all eat pests and they're really good at finding stuff in your trees. All of that goes away when you start using chemical pesticides. Yeah, occasionally it might be necessary for a tree or two - or those you bring inside.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Their website mentions a member there also uses steel wire from the hardware. $5 a spool. So, sounds like they are eccentric possibly. ?

 

[rockm]

Their website mentions a member there also uses steel wire from the hardware. $5 a spool. So, sounds like they are eccentric possibly. ?

Steel wire? for what? Wiring their trees? If so, their trees are probably short a few limbs. Steel wire can be a lot harder to bend than copper and can wind up snapping branches.
These guys are idiots.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Well, I am feeling less like driving an hour and a half, to an hour and fourth five minutes away...to visit the club. I mean, I do fortunately have experience in the hobby awhile that...if it sounds strange, ya know. Passed out buckeye saplings for a project. Their leaf doesn't reduce...a few things on their site...made me pause. I find they have had ones who have well respected names in to do lectures. And, that might be where I find it worth while to take the drive. But, to just drive up...at night to work a tree. When I can do it from home... I am finding less desirable. My connections here, and the knowledge shared. Is above par...and I am grateful again for those here who share their knowledge with one like me...who have no real club to call home. And a questionable one...in somewhat of a driving distance now. I would like to call them eccentric more than anything...but, I am afraid I am a bonsai snob. Projects...didn't impress me. Would I be expected to do them as well? I don't wish to take on any more projects...so maybe not. But...I can watch for lectures. I may just pop in for Spring and introduce myself. So when they have a lecture/Demo they know who I am.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

If it doesn’t work, you will have to replace the flea collar with the cone of shame to prevent the tree from scratching all its bark off!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I give them points for creativity and enthusiasm!

 

[CWTurner]

his person ever actually SEEN an ant lion?

I hadn't, and googled up this larval? stage image.

Pretty scary.
CW

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Well, I am feeling less like driving an hour and a half, to an hour and fourth five minutes away...to visit the club. I mean, I do fortunately have experience in the hobby awhile that...if it sounds strange, ya know. Passed out buckeye saplings for a project. Their leaf doesn't reduce...a few things on their site...made me pause. I find they have had ones who have well respected names in to do lectures. And, that might be where I find it worth while to take the drive. But, to just drive up...at night to work a tree. When I can do it from home... I am finding less desirable. My connections here, and the knowledge shared. Is above par...and I am grateful again for those here who share their knowledge with one like me...who have no real club to call home. And a questionable one...in somewhat of a driving distance now. I would like to call them eccentric more than anything...but, I am afraid I am a bonsai snob. Projects...didn't impress me. Would I be expected to do them as well? I don't wish to take on any more projects...so maybe not. But...I can watch for lectures. I may just pop in for Spring and introduce myself. So when they have a lecture/Demo they know who I am.

Hi Darlene
I have seen good bonsai clubs and mediocre bonsai clubs. (also orchid clubs, actually I've seen many more orchid clubs as I lecture to orchid clubs or societies all over the country)

Good clubs have an active core of members who try to keep things fresh, and try to educate their membership and themselves. THey try to offer speakers, workshops and other activities that the membership wants. In the USA, unlike some other countries, the membership and directors are all unpaid volunteers. Sometimes, because it is work to keep a club organized and functioning, sometimes a club becomes dominated by certain personality types. This is not unusual, There is an orchid society I know of that eventually dissolved, or rather the majority of members left to form a club in the neighboring suburb just to avoid a certain dominant personality in the original club. The now rather small original club remains the personal fan club of the dominant personality, and the ''new'', much larger club is where the more well adjusted people hang out. (no, it is not the Western Shores Orchid Society and the Greater Cleveland Orchid Society, it is actually a pair of clubs several hundred miles south and east of Cleveland). I have good friends in both Cleveland area orchid societies.

The best clubs I have found, have their focus on education first, and have strict term limits at least for the club president. The term limits help to keep a single personality from dominating for too many years. It is also important that a club recognize that the best sources of information come from outside the club. If a club relies too heavily on their own membership for education, the club is doomed to never learning as much as the ''dominant personality'' in the club. If you want to see an active, well run club, check out the website and newsletters for the Milwaukee Bonsai Society. They bring people in from around the country at least 8 months of the year. They have a regular program of beginner and intermediate classes, teachers for these classes are our local members who invested to get trained by Boon, or now Ryan Neil, or Suthin, and our official club sensei was Ted Matson for 10 years, and now Peter Tea for the last 6 years. The club sensei visits 3 or 4 times a year for all day workshops and general membership programs. And our club encourages small groups of friends to form their own independent study groups. (meaning no financial or organizing input from the original club)

I could have joined the Chicago area bonsai society, or the Milwaukee area society. I live roughly equidistant between where the two meet. I ended up with the Milwaukee group because at the time 15 years ago the Milwaukee group was more active and more of a blue jeans and flannel shirt crowd, rather than a business casual crowd. This fit my personality better. The Chicago group, especially now (the last 5 or more years) is a really good group, but at the time I was choosing a home society I made Milwaukee my choice. I am really glad I did.

So I feel your dilema about this less than inspiring club. I do recommend you go and check them out, especially when they have a guest artist in. Take advantage of that. If the cost of membership is low, and it gives you access to meet major artists once or twice a year, it would be money well spent. Most clubs only have a small % of their membership show up more than once or twice a year. Who knows, you might bump into a kindred spirit, meet a friendly face from not as far away. If you do, form a study group, and work together independent of the club.

 

[rockm]

Impromptu study groups formed from like-minded club members, or a "pick up" group of non-members are great. I've done this a few times from people I've met through clubs and some local knowledgeable people who are "around" the local bonsai scene.