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| The Plague of Flies |
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8:21 Else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. My husband, Jim, and I have our own business growing mushrooms in a greenhouse. Right now we are going through what I consider our Plague of Flies. You see, mushrooms attract a fungal gnat, that is similar to a fruit fly in size. They are more of a nuisance than anything else, although they do get into the bags of straw that we grow the mushrooms on, and eat the mycelium (mushroom) before it grows out through the holes and forms into mushrooms. The can also get into the stems of the mushrooms and lay their larvae which then eats the stem of the mushroom eventually killing the mushroom before it even gets a chance to become mature.
We closed down our greenhouse in January, a typically slow month anyway, and bug bombed it, to get rid of the flies and their larvae. When we started back up in February, we were fly free! It was wonderful. However, as soon as the weather started to warm up, back came the flies, with a vengeance.
Since we try to remain organic, we can't really use pesticides, which would undoubtedly take care of the problem. We can't set off bug bombs with mushrooms in the building for that reason. We have fly strips hanging, and we discovered an organic substance called Neem Oil that is supposed to keep the flies off of the bags, because they don't like the smell. Unfortunately, we don't want to use it on the mushrooms themselves, because it might alter the taste of the mushroom. And also unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be helping much!
So, my husband was talking to someone who had praying mantis cocoons, and he was telling Jim how the praying mantis love flies...so that gives Jim the bright idea of putting some cocoons in the greenhouse and letting them hatch out, so that they can eat the flies. We have several cocoons, since praying mantis are prevalent in our area, and we have these bushes that they tend to spin their cocoons on. So he found five of them and has placed them in the greenhouse. Each cocoon could hatch as many as 200 mantis'. So far, they haven't done anything, and who knows if they will, but I have to ask myself, will we go from the plague of the flies, to the plague of the praying mantis? Do they like mushrooms? Will they eat all my mushrooms? Can you imagine all those praying mantis flying around while I am trying to pick mushrooms?
So that leaves me with the question...is my experience anything like in the Old Testament, where Pharoah was being stubborn and hard hearted, and was dealt the ten plagues? Am I being given a plague, because I am not doing something I should be doing, or doing something I shouldn't be doing? Or because Jesus came to save us all, is this just something that I am going through because it is part of life, and part of the mushroom growing process?
Are we punished in this life for not doing what we should, or doing what we shouldn't, the way we are blessed when we do good?
I will keep you posted on the situation. If we go from the plague of flies to the plague of praying mantis, then at least the praying mantis will be praying! |
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| To add a comment to "The Plague of Flies" |
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| May 31, 2007 |
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Deb, this blog is yucky. lol
Someone we knew bought a xmas tree one year with a mantis cocoon in it which they were unaware of. In the warmth of the house it hatched days later, and they had to deal with hundreds (seemed like thousands) of tiny white baby mantises running all around. Ewy!
As for your question, there are indeed verses that talk about how our disobedience can cause bad things to happen to us in this life. And for that matter, other people's sin can also impact us for the worse, which doesn't seem fair. But then, we do live in a fallen world! ~mike |
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| May 31, 2007 |
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| Mike, I see you still gave me a start even if it is yucky. I am actually hoping the cocoons won't hatch out. It will be interesting to see if they do! My husband says that if it gets too bad we will just have to set off bug bombs, but I hate to kill all those cute little praying mantis! |
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| May 31, 2007 |
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| When I was in the third grade someone brought in a butterfly cocoon---that turned out to be praying mantises which hatched out and started flying all over our classroom in the middle of math class!!!!! We got most of the rest of the afternoon as recess as they tried to clean out our room. I still laugh when I remember the girls shrieking about it. |
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| May 31, 2007 |
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Steve, I will probably be shrieking if all of these hatch out. Since this was Jim's idea, HE will have to fix the problem if it becomes one! |
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| June 16, 2007 |
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| I wanted to give an update on the praying mantis/fly situation. Jim finally took my advice and opened up one of the cocoons, since they were not opening, and we had no little baby praying mantis running around. They had never formed into anything and were all dry...each and every cocoon. So, (thank God) there will be no praying mantis in the greenhouse for now. Jim has mentioned that he might BUY some cocoons and try those in the greenhouse. <Sigh> I'll keep you posted. |
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