DE and crawling insects

DE is a common filter material--you can get it at any swimming pool supply in 20# bags.

Rap

told ya so. . .
Boric acid works in much the same way.

This was a bullshit effort at "earth friendly" pesticides that was started by "ORGANIC GARDENING" and the Rodale Institute. Penn State did some heavy testing on DE back in the 90's as a possible ag pest and roach management trick and found that it wasnt effective at all. Just becuase Diatomaceous Earth looks like a pile of midieval weapons doesnt mean its gonna do anything to the bugs.

Boric acide has shown to work, DE is just hype from the industry.
We used to use DE for the old "Gooch filter" where wed make layers of asbestos, DE, asbestos, etc etc. It was used to clean up solutions of rare earth element solutions to take out CA?MG salts and Fe

Thanks for the confirmation.

I remember seeing in an encyclopedia ages ago, an entry about DE. To illustrate the abrasive nature of DE they included a photomicrograph of a bug with its exoskeleton shredded up by DE particles.

Organic gardeners have been aware of this for many years.

DE is about the only thing that worked in my battle against the army of slugs that invaded my container plants on the second floor balcony of my apartment in Sacramento. They just snickered at so called slug and snail bait.

It sure worked on the slugs!

The amazing Diatom

I've used a lot of DE as filter material--and Bucky Fuller made many of his geodesic discoveries based upon the shape of those medieval weapons.

One of DE's great advantages as filter material is that it is spherical and from a macroscopic point of view it is easy to slurry into a close packing configuration---what am I doing I'm preaching to the informed.

Anyway it's shape is the key to DE as a polishing filter--that's why it would be available in quantity at a swimming pool supply.

Rap

Open saucers of beer work on slugs. Leave it at sunset and in the morning you'll be disgusted.

Rap

Apparently Ive been wrong on the use of (diatomite) as a bedbug killer. Apparently its all a function of chem diffusion where minerals and fluids are sapped out of the bedbugs body. However the PA State U had done extensive research on orchard and farm pests and the stuff apparently didnt work for those bugs. Same thing with roaches.

We used to use the stuff for final polishing of quartz wedgies for polarizing scopes.(Back in my day we had to learn to make our own bent glass crap and quartz wedgies for labs.

I think dynamite was discovered when Nobel accidentally spilled some nitro into a diatomite packing box, and he didnt die. There are some deep deposits in Germany and Austria, in the US we have thick young deposits (the best) in Nevada and Florida. In Germany they call the stuff kieselgur

I think the key aspect of it's use as an insecticide is that it has to get all over the body of the insect and into the joints of the exoskeleton. That's why it's so effective to put it into a plastic bag with ants in it. And since bedbugs move around between the sheets, having this stuff on the sheets is also effective. However, just spreading it on the ground or on a surface that bugs walk on, won't be nearly as effective (or completely ineffective).

when Penn State did its orchard and crop studies with DE, they were keeping the bugs dusted with the stuff while theye were in captivity chambers. Not much happened but the bedbug stuff I read explained it as a sort of chemical "dessicant" which would eneter the exoskeleton and joints by abrasion (the shaopes help) and then the diffusion pressure torques up and the bugs dry up from inside out. Im wondering whether this **** can work on STINK BUGS (which are gonna become a plague in eating up fruits and soft veggies like tomatoes).

The Stink Bug invasion is less than 10 years old and is already causing measurabke apple crop losses in the apple valleys of PA , VA and Md.

Ammonia spray works on snails and I suppose it would on slugs too. A little gory to watch for the squeamish.
Ah, yes, it does -
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/msg0402425321998.html

If I remember, they also won't pass a copper barrier. 'Course, copper's expensive.

May have something to do with the size of the insects. The claims involving bedbugs and ants is that it grinds up their leg joints but even if the stuff only worked on bedbugs, this is good news.

Well, Penn States tests were focused on larvae that were caterpillars. They felt that (from Rodales reports) the abrasion and chem diffusion would break up the bugs cell and tissue walls and then theyd dry up.
Apparently with the bedbugs it appears that your report of physical abrasion causing the bugs death is what they are counting on.

Might work on ants the same way. I'd also think it would work best if dry and powdry, i.e. it would work best indoors, and if outdoors then applied on a dry day.