COSMIC TRANSLATION CLASS 19 - how to cope with and get rid of
                               fly infestations


 Here is a quick true short story. Circ 1997 I had decided to try
 a worm farm for loaming kitchen wastes. In the large blue box
 container shipped from Perth for $79.00 were a small brown bag
 of red worms, a smaller bag of pure calcium which the worms
 apparently like, a wad of shredded newspaper which when mixed
 with kitchen scraps gets the farm going, and an instruction
 sheet recommending not to use onion or garlic or related
 reekies since these shock the worms. I did not know what
 'shocking the worms' meant.

 Another caution was to avoid using soil from the outside if boosting
 volume in the worm farm, since infestations of vermin can result.
 I soon learned what that meant.

 Moving beyond the original blue box, I soon had three large flat
 plastic trays spread on a floor as well covered with screens in
 a room storing files and unfinished manuscripts along with devices
 and tools used in experiments. I had carried in a pail load of outdoor
 soils because the pulp I was creating using a vegetable juicer was
 rapidly filling up the trays with too much of one kind of mix,
 I thought, so better mute it with outdoor soil.

 Soon enough, flies started to appear in the kitchen, at first a few
 dozen, then dozens more, than a hundred and more a day. By this time
 I had taken to daily vacuming the flies in the kitchen and the room
 where most were now gathering daily on the walls shelves and windows,
 by this time I was vacuming twice a day, in the morning, in the
 afternoon, vacuming every one, and as I worked I could see more
 even more crawling out of the worm farm trays, yes, a massive
 infestation of flies was underway and I was quickly loosing the
 battle. Worse, tiny brown flecks from the fly's tailpipes were
 starting to darken every object in the room.

 It reached a point where one afternoon over a thousand flies crowded
 the walls and windows of the room enough! I left it till next day and
 when entering to vacume ... but first, some more story.

 Two things, I had been using a juicer to produce two tall glasses of
 vegetable juice for brother and myself every day, the juice combining
 carrot, brocolli, purple (red onion) and beets, plus a couple of garlic
 cloves and a small chunk of ginger. The juicer was put aside (took too
 long to clean its combs and screen) however still today I am convinced
 it was the best drink combination I could be drinking, in those three
 months using the juicer my whole joint structure had abruptly changed
 I could stand upright and touch any toe with any finger, could touch my
 nose with either big toe, and even pull my thumbs down to lie flat along
 each forearm - never before able to in my life. When bucks are here I
 will be back to that vegetable mixture only this time use a powerful
 blender to puree the whole mixture including the pulp since I believe
 the pulp is also valuable. Back then, when juicing for three months,
 two tall glasses of juice resulted with huge mounds of pulp what to do
 with it too bland for more than a small portion into soups etc, the rest
 into the worm farm, except, I recalled that the instruction sheet said
 no garlic or onions or related so that explained why too many worms
 seemed to be vanishing and since, had been separating the juicing
 into two portions - onion pulp, the clump of ginger and a couple of
 cloves of garlic done separate, their pulp pitched in the garbage
 pail.

 In the evening of the day leaving the afternoon vacuming shift for
 next day I had been in a real hurry juicing and accidentally mixed
 and pitched all the vegetables in one the pulp going straight into
 one of the worm farm trays.

 The next morning, stepping through the door vacume in hand ready to
 battle was an eerie difference, at first not obvious until confirmed
 every last single fly in that room (and there were thousands) was
 lying flat on its back legs up in the air. Not a single fly was alive,
 not even one, and I could smell very strong onion, very, the room
 reeked. Oh ho you bet my finger went straight up - fly infestations
 everywhere are HISTORY, thanks to the reek of onions.

 A bit more to the story - early on in getting the farm underway
 I had noticed some new worms nursuring in a tray and a while later
 hardly any worms, this came to be seen as caused by onion and
 garlic pulps as per cautioned in the worm farm's instruction
 sheet so that was when separation of two kinds of vegetable
 began when juicing. I had also seen that the farm produce
 could quickly go hard and dry if not attended every day
 and worms were being lost to hardness. It came to pass
 after three months that the worms I was expecting to
 harvest and sell were not happening so I let the
 thing go, just to step in watering and now and
 then toss in more fuel from the kitchen.

 In six months it came time to leave the location.
 Each tray (there were three) and two plastic
 box containers one the original blue box
 from Perth were emptied out the back
 patio door. Two of the trays had a
 few worms in clusters and was quite
 dry, both plastic box containers
 had hardly any since these needed
 the mix to be constantly turned and I
 had left this chore long enough that the
 bottom of both boxes had turned swampy. It was
 the third long flat tray, when dumping it, there were
 thousands of red worm spreading out and disappearing into the
 earth, had I known how this had happened and to keep it expanding
 I would have had my worm farm worms for sale.

 Ergo I know (finger up) how to get rid of fly infestations. It is not
 hanging up cloves of garlic to get rid of vampires, it is hanging up
 sacks of onion pulp to get rid of flys. Image how quickly a farmer's
 dairy barn can be cleaned of flys by hanging around a few onion reeks.

 I wonder what reeks might do with hordes of locust.

 greydie/ - 2002
 greydie@look.com