Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS MARCH 2012, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Good morning everyone, (I don't know why I say everyone as everyone seems to have gone somewhere else except Wendy) so I'll just say Good morning Wendy.

At last the rain seems to have stopped, no rain all night and as I start typing this morning it’s 5.00am and it’s still not raining. However there’ll be no work in the garden again this morning as I have to go for more ultrasounds, so that’s the morning wasted.

There won’t be much done this afternoon either as I have a special treat; Jen is coming to visit and no doubt we’ll spend a lot of time “brom chatting” and looking at plants. It will be really good to at last be able to put a face to one of the anonymous people who I have communicated with occasionally via Emails and DG forums, and I’m really looking forward to it. Last year it was Sue and I’ve worked it out that at this rate of one person per year I will be 98 by the time I finally get to meet the people who I regularly chat with on these forums.

Wendy – That’s a great bargain you got onto with the paint. Unfortunately our local Bunnings rarely ever has any specials like that as they chose to hang onto everything at the right price until the very last minute. Even their plants are at death’s door before they are reduced in price by which time nobody wants to buy them anyway and they end up in the bin.

I was also told by the horticulturist at our local Bunnings that they are going to stop stocking all Brunnings and Amgrow products as well as a third brand they hadn't told him the name of at that stage. The reason being is that Woolworths who are starting up some “Super Stores” (similar to Bunnings) have bought the sole rights to these products and even though they won’t be opening for another two years, they will cut supplies of all this stock to Bunnings so it seems like it’s all out war between these two companies which hopefully, somewhere down the track should mean a better deal for "us" the consumer.

As for those of you suffering from the dreaded flu bug, look after yourselves and get better soon; it’s not just confined to Queensland you know; every second person we see down here has it or knows someone with it as well; except me that is, as I have my orange every day as I have for the past fifty nine years on the advice of the GP who treated me as a child when I had a cold which progressed to bronchial pneumonia. He was visiting twice a day and giving me penicillin injections and it was then he told me that if I ate an orange a day for the rest of my life I’d never get a cold again, and so far he’s been right.

I have a little bit more on the mystery creature; it was sent to me from another forum by a friend. He sent me a link to Wikipedia which describes the “monster” as a "Rat-tailed maggot" and it’s also accompanied by pictures, see below:

Rat-tailed maggot
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Eristalis tenax larva
Rat-tailed maggots are the larvae of some species of hoverfly, commonly Eristalis tenax. A characteristic feature of rat-tailed maggots is a tube-like, three segmented, telescoping breathing siphon located at their posterior end.[1] This acts like a snorkel, allowing the larva to breathe air while submerged. The siphon is usually about as long again as the maggot's body (20 mm when mature), but can be extended as long as 150 mm. It is this organ that gives the larva its common name. It lives in stagnant, oxygen-deprived water, with a high organic content. It is fairly tolerant of pollution and can live in sewage lagoons and cesspools.[1]

Contents
[hide]
• 1 Commercial use
• 2 Infection
• 3 Images
• 4 References
• 5 External links


[edit] Commercial use
These larvae, commonly called "mousies" are cultured and sold as fish bait. They are especially popular in ice fishing.[2]
[edit] Infection
There have occasionally been documented cases of human intestinal Myiasis of the Rat-tailed maggot (larvae of Eristalis tenax). Symptoms can be none (asymptomatic) to abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, or pruritus ani. Infection can be caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water but doubts have been expressed that accidentally ingested fly larvae could survive in the gastrointestinal tract. Zumpt proposed an alternative called "rectal myiasis". Flies, attracted to feces, may deposit their eggs or larvae near or into the anus, and the larvae then penetrate further into the rectum. They can survive feeding on feces at this site, as long as the breathing tube reaches towards the anus.[1][3]

If you want to see the pic's you need to go to this link:....... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat-tailed_maggot

Well that's it for another day, now for a few more pic's, thi time I'll post some of the NZ Neoregelia miniatures.

1. is Neoregelia Alley Cat. 2. Neoregelia Cayenne, 3. Neoregelia Mini Skirt, and 4. is neoregelia Pheasant There was a 5. as well but it's disappeared

All the best, Nev.