Rollie Pollies remove Heavy Metals

AngelaOston
AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

One of my red wiggler compost growing towers is full of rollie pollies I was a bit concerned, but just let it be Seeing this glad I did I had gotten some local horse manure compost from a friend last year, and added it to a number of containers I suspect now, that the horse’s hay was contaminated with glycophoshate. The containers that I added it to havent been growing as well this year. But since the rollie pollies moved in 4 or 5 months ago, the plant growth has improved in my grow tower. So another lesson in allowing nature to happen, and finding out the why later

Comments

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That is cool. Mother Nature has a reason for everything.

  • HearthForYou
    HearthForYou Posts: 52 ✭✭✭

    Good to know. It makes me want to look further into rollie pollies.

    I've known about Paul Stamets work with myecillium cleaning up toxins in soil, but not rollie pollies. Here's a link to Stamets TedTalk :): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY

  • KimWilson
    KimWilson Posts: 197 ✭✭✭

    I just read that rollie pollies are edible. I don't know if I could ever try that one out. Does anyone out there know for sure?

  • tuliv4
    tuliv4 Posts: 17 ✭✭✭

    I place wood chips as a mulch on my garden and where I did this last year the rollie pollie population was exceptionally high around the blue lake green beans. In this case they became a bit pesty, as they were chewing into the beans. I’ve wondered about why they went after the beans that way, so I find the study of interest. Thank you for increasing knowledge about the roll of the rollie pollies in nature and the garden.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    I just know most insects are safely edible. Unlike rodents, there is very few bacterial or viruses in common.

  • Suburban Pioneer
    Suburban Pioneer Posts: 339 ✭✭✭

    Didn't know what these things were, but they HAVE increased as I've improved our soil. Fantastic to know what they do, and what great friends of ours they are!

  • ltwickey
    ltwickey Posts: 369 ✭✭✭

    I love rollie-pollies! I like having them in conjunction with lady bugs. My grandmother always told me they were good for gardens, but never told me why! Now I know!

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've found that the insect population in my garden seems to maintain a pretty good balance with no effort on my part. Nature really does balance itself.

    If you have an unusually high number of rolly-pollies, or anything else, there's probably a reason. But even if you don't know the reason, it will probably fix itself. To quote David the Good, "You don't want to reduce the insect population; you want to raise it dramatically!"

    Examples: I occasionally complain about Japanese beetles in the garden, but they don't do enough damage to my edible crops to be a real issue.

    Something (leaf miners?) is eating back some of the leaves of my onion tops, but never enough to prevent harvest or kill the plants.

    Something munches holes in my tatsoi, but never enough to be a problem.

    Rotate different crop families through your beds, don't use poisons to reduce insect population, and avoid monoculture. Remove dead plant material from the bed at the end of the season. If it's infested with insects or shows excessive insect damage, don't compost it, just throw it out.

    The exact techniques you need will be different in different regions, depending on temperature, rainfall, etc. Warmer, wetter climates are likely to have more problems. But if you find yourself constantly needing to spray, you are probably doing something wrong.

    You are likely to get a good supply of food crop with little effort.

  • Momma Mo
    Momma Mo Posts: 138 ✭✭✭

    It's amazing how God takes care of His creation. We just have to get out of the way!

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Thanks, i would love to look into his work. Have been very focused on the power of microfungi, and using no dig and wood chips to support the microfungi web. The more i read about the chemical communication that happens in the soil, the more convinced I am. That this is a huge part of what is degrading or topsoils, and creating unhealthy food. I love thinking about microfungi the way the showed the glowing fibers in the soil of the movie avatar. Alive and supporting the world.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    I heard they were too. Havent tried one yet, despite playing with them for hours as a kid 😃

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Yeah heard that too, The only time i heard they are inevitable is if the are extremely poisonous or if the insect is directly feeding on a lot of rat feces. Apparently that has happened in south east asia on a rare occasion, that the insects for sale are be raised in someones home And not just caught in the wild.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    I agree whole heartedly with you. Sometimes I just feel like my house is an insect sanctuary more than even a garden for my family. I love the backyard garden and pond buzzing with life. It feels like a magical fairy universe.

    when i visit my parents orchard in hood river, Oregon, I am struck by how silent and still it is. And how the soil feels like its weak and trying hard to recover. Their orchard looks beautiful, but my dad use to sell chemical sprays. So pesticides, fungicides, herbicides And chemical fertilizers are all used. They have tried to do a more “integrated” approach the last few years. And i respect they are trying. But the contrast is so intense. I think of Rachel Carson’s aptly named Silent Spring. And am thankful for her lone cry in the wilderness so many years ago.

  • MissPatricia
    MissPatricia Posts: 318 ✭✭✭

    That is fantastic. I have lots of these around.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    Very cool about Rollie Pollies. I don't think I would want to eat ones that had been in contaminated soil, since I would assume they would be full of the heavy metals, etc.

    Now who knows something cool about earwigs????

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    As a follow up have seem very few rollie pollies this year, but everything is green and vibrant. Using lots of cuy (guinea pig) mulch with their used hay and wood chips on everything. And some regular use of human compost tea with human urine to fertilize everything So hopefully this means the heavy minerals are in balance and the aren’t needed.

  • Cornelius
    Cornelius Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭

    I have always loved pill-bugs and loved watching them roll up when I was a kid. I'll be even more happy the next time I see one lol.