Greens killed my roaches

pigglett79

pigglett79

Avid Member
Well, I made a big mistake and fed my roach colony with non-organic greens that clearly still had high levels of pesticides on them. They were fed late last night and this morning a large percent of my colony is dead. I normally feed them organic food only, but this short cut taught me a lesson. Also I will be changing my own diet, from partially organic to totally organic, as I don't want to eat food that can kill my roaches.

Roaches.jpg
 
Oh no!!! that freaked me out :(

I do wash all my greens before feeding, but that is just terrible, and scary!!!
Some pesticides can not simply be washed off, the chemical actually goes into the cells of the plant.

I used to be a bench chemist in a food lab.
One time we were doing pesticide residue analysis on apples, and we were looking for a control (something with no pesticides).
So I went to a "healthfood" store and bought some "organicly grown" apples.

When we did the analysis (using HPLC in this case) we found that the "organic" apples were loaded with pesticides!! not only that, but a few of the compounds we detected were illegal to use for apples in the US :eek:

I ended up using pureed baby food apples as a control :confused:
 
Awww that sucks big time. I normally don't feed too much fresh veggies just because of this, my colony gets mostly carrots and grapes which I wash thoroughly. I hope your colony rebounds soon.
 
Psychobunny said:
Oh no!!! that freaked me out :(

I do wash all my greens before feeding, but that is just terrible, and scary!!!
Some pesticides can not simply be washed off, the chemical actually goes into the cells of the plant.

I used to be a bench chemist in a food lab.
One time we were doing pesticide residue analysis on apples, and we were looking for a control (something with no pesticides).
So I went to a "healthfood" store and bought some "organicly grown" apples.

When we did the analysis (using HPLC in this case) we found that the "organic" apples were loaded with pesticides!! not only that, but a few of the compounds we detected were illegal to use for apples in the US :eek:

I ended up using pureed baby food apples as a control :confused:
Click to expand...

It's true that organic does not mean pesticide free. They are allowed to use a wide variety of organic pesticides some of which can be harmful even to humans according to some studies. I should have clarified that I feel the organic produce has more ability go be washed clean. But you can't be sure it's safe just because it's organic. At our farmers market I can sometimes find pesticide free produce, but you can't be sure no matter what store you shop at. Just have to wash it the best you can. But I also grow my own greens when weather permits and those I know are free of chemicals.
 
Have you tired looking into growing your own? Hydroponic gardening is becoming very popular and there are many more outlets for supplies. You control what is going into what is grown.

Carl
 
Psychobunny said:
Oh no!!! that freaked me out :(

I do wash all my greens before feeding, but that is just terrible, and scary!!!
Some pesticides can not simply be washed off, the chemical actually goes into the cells of the plant.

I used to be a bench chemist in a food lab.
One time we were doing pesticide residue analysis on apples, and we were looking for a control (something with no pesticides).
So I went to a "healthfood" store and bought some "organicly grown" apples.

When we did the analysis (using HPLC in this case) we found that the "organic" apples were loaded with pesticides!! not only that, but a few of the compounds we detected were illegal to use for apples in the US :eek:

I ended up using pureed baby food apples as a control :confused:
Click to expand...

That's crazy. I guess you never really know what your getting.
 
pigglett79 said:
It's true that organic does not mean pesticide free. They are allowed to use a wide variety of organic pesticides some of which can be harmful even to humans according to some studies. I should have clarified that I feel the organic produce has more ability go be washed clean. But you can't be sure it's safe just because it's organic. At our farmers market I can sometimes find pesticide free produce, but you can't be sure no matter what store you shop at. Just have to wash it the best you can. But I also grow my own greens when weather permits and those I know are free of chemicals.
Click to expand...


This was back in the 1990's, but the trouble we saw was that farmers, even corp farmers, used to buy pesticide mixes which contained several compounds for whichever kind of crop they had. The farmer usually did not know what was in the mixture, and they assumed it was all USDA legit.
But as time went on, some pesticides were banned, but they were still using the same old mixture.
Most of these compounds have a very long shelf life, they do not have expiration dates. So farmers can use the same mix for years.

Another problem was that most of the pesticides went by different names; chemical name, brand name, etc.
Spot checks were performed by USDA on farms, and I personally know of a few big corp farmers who had to plow an entire crop under because an illegal pesticide was detected, the lose can go into the millions of dollars.

As a scientist, if I determined a farmers crop had a high amount of an illegal pesticide, or any pesticide which is not approved for that crop, and reported the data from my analysis, I better know what I am
saying, because I could face a prison term if I am proved wrong.
This includes any lab techs who assisted me in my analysis, and my manager!

In such a case, the suspect sample is sent to other labs to verify, and we would perform analysis again in our own lab using a different method.

In some states, data from HPLC can not be used as evidence in court simply
because it is often not accurate enough and is open to interpretation.
We would use HPLC/MS or GC/MS to confirm, as this is not contestable.

Bottom line.... no, you really don't know what you are eating :eek:
 
Wow, eye opening.

Let this lesson be learned to everyone. Have your loss be the knowledge for someone elses gain! Thanks for sharing
 
My wife works for the agg department for the salad capital of the world.
That's all I will mention about her.
And yes it's very very true. Organic doesn't mean nothing!
Their is still pesticides and fertilizers in organic.
Organic only means less of them.

Anyways the things she tells me, made me grow my own stuff and I avoid buying anything from stores.
And that's fruits and veggies! What the hell is in our meats and breads and cheeses and stuff.

When I was in Europe I learned something very very interesting. Preserves and chemicals that they put in our foods in the us are banned in most places on this earth cause of their bad health effects.

Why is it only ok in the us?? :confused:
 
Rango3d said:
Why is it only ok in the us?? :confused:
Click to expand...

Because here big business runs things. People don't have a say. GMO's are the perfect example. Monsanto(for example) buys the support in government and gets their way to mess with our food supply.

Carl
 
You could also invest into a garden for gutloading all your food, and might be a nice project besides chameleon keeping
 
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