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Sheffields Flora and Fauna


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Ether

Chloroform

As well as being pretty good sore throat tablets and nasal decongestants they must have made fantastic sleeping pills as well.

Although I can't remember them having that effect.

Nor can I, despite being a heavy user of lozenges in my earlier days. I could do with some of those ingredients at the moment to counter my insomnia.

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Wow!!

Not only do I have to translate the chemical formulas I have to translate it back into English from Spanish as well

Tetramethyl ??? (seems to be an incomplete compound name?)

Permethrin (see hilldwellers previous post)

Piperidne butoxide (a nasty nitrogen based hetrocyclic compound, - seriously affects human male fertility so I'm not handling it!)

Solvent and Propellant (un-named chemicals which the nasties are dissolved in and the gas used to spray them out of the can)

So there are some nasties in there. This spray (Zum )was bought quite legally at a recognised supermercado. However, at the local ferrateria (ironmongers) we can buy lots of goodies that are not perhaps kosher!! :) We have a particular probem with processionary caterpillars, in the pine trees but can buy a collar of very toxic stuff to put around the trees. It works! :P

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Insomnia is horrible MA, instead of sheep try counting people you know, this leads you to remember them, encounters, etc. It sometimes works :P

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So there are some nasties in there. This spray (Zum )was bought quite legally at a recognised supermercado. However, at the local ferrateria (ironmongers) we can buy lots of goodies that are not perhaps kosher!! :) We have a particular probem with processionary caterpillars, in the pine trees but can buy a collar of very toxic stuff to put around the trees. It works! :P

You are a star Dave!!

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The use of cyanides is where our technician got the idea to use one of our potassium cyanide "candles" to sort out the school wasp nests.

He DID know what he was doing and acted fairly safely with little danger to himself (other than being stung by wasps)

It's just that its not a very conventional or envirnmentally friendly way of doing things.

As Steve says, - thankfully now banned and, due to the toxic risk it presented to humans, unobtainable for general use.

At a large higher education establishment I worked at for a number of years there was a laboratory dedicated for cyanide use. A throwback I think to the times when they had an interest in metallurgy. It still contained large amounts of cyanide in different forms but was largely disused. It had a key and electronic key access. When it was required for other uses the more complex cyanide compounds were taken away by specialist contractor but the ordinary cyanide salts were neutralized by the application of large amounts of domestic bleach (sodium hypochlorate ?) The guy seemed to know what he was doing but I kept well out of the way.

HD

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So there are some nasties in there. This spray (Zum )was bought quite legally at a recognised supermercado. However, at the local ferrateria (ironmongers) we can buy lots of goodies that are not perhaps kosher!! :) We have a particular probem with processionary caterpillars, in the pine trees but can buy a collar of very toxic stuff to put around the trees. It works! :P

Ferrateria

Ferra, as in Ferrous or Ferric, literally means iron

I once bought some very nasty chemical insecticides which had recently been banned at a market in the quarry on Portland, Dorset.

Nothing I had bought until then killed cockroaches and woodlice, - but this stuff did.

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At a large higher education establishment I worked at for a number of years there was a laboratory dedicated for cyanide use. A throwback I think to the times when they had an interest in metallurgy. It still contained large amounts of cyanide in different forms but was largely disused. It had a key and electronic key access. When it was required for other uses the more complex cyanide compounds were taken away by specialist contractor but the ordinary cyanide salts were neutralized by the application of large amounts of domestic bleach (sodium hypochlorate ?) The guy seemed to know what he was doing but I kept well out of the way.

HD

This seems fairly safe standard practice at the time HD

Cyanides were frequently used in steel testing (with the ferrocyanide and ferricyanide "Prussian Blue" test) for oxidation and rusting rates, Cyanide was also used in silver and nickel elctroplating (to make EPNS) where it gave a more uniform electroplated layer. It was also used along with ferric chloride to etch copper off of copper clad plastic sheets to make printed circuit board.

So quite a commonly used chemical in metalurgy.

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For the last nine months I've been getting small deposits of poo in my garden [any crapologists out there ? ]

I was told it's hedgehog poo but I'm not sure. Could it be fox or maybe squirrel ?

It looks like a black snail, I might take a picture of it but I get some very strange looks when I start

taking pictures of " things ".

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For the last nine months I've been getting small deposits of poo in my garden [any crapologists out there ? ]

I was told it's hedgehog poo but I'm not sure. Could it be fox or maybe squirrel ?

It looks like a black snail, I might take a picture of it but I get some very strange looks when I start

taking pictures of " things ".

Lets hope you get to the bottom of it UKL,

link .. Hedgehog scats

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Lets hope you get to the bottom of it UKL,

link .. Hedgehog scats

Nice one Steve lol

Looking at the " Hedgehog scats" yes it's the same. I wonder where it's hiding and would slug

pellets harm it as I tend to throw a few of those around.

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Nice one Steve lol

Looking at the " Hedgehog scats" yes it's the same. I wonder where it's hiding and would slug

pellets harm it as I tend to throw a few of those around.

As to weather or not the pellets would harm hedgehogs or other wildlife is a little debatable,

I think it all depends on the brand and quantity used.

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Nice one Steve lol

Looking at the " Hedgehog scats" yes it's the same. I wonder where it's hiding and would slug

pellets harm it as I tend to throw a few of those around.

Hi UL, hedgehogs do eat a lot of slugs, hence why they are so beneficial to have in the garden, you are lucky. Slug pellets will have an untoward effect on them, so it would be kinder to stop using them. I had the same quandry in the UK but did stop using the pellets and was rewarded by lots of hedgehogs eating the slugs instead (also trapped them with beer in an upturned flower pot, the slugs I mean!), foxes will also eat slugs when they are hard up. Incidentally, I hope you are fortunate enough to see them tentatively mating, we did one memorable night, it was like something out of Benny Hill, cue that awful music he used!!! he he Very entertaining though, like the old joke, very very carefully lol. We are so blessed here, no slugs whatsoever and the snails are teeny, the bad bit is the worms are a bit scarce, I now fight the robins to retain the worms, whereas in the UK it was a delight to watch them feasting when you are digging the garden B) Thank goodness for our local shepherd and his sheep sh--t which is so wonderful for the soil. I would add that when he remove a great pile of it from the side of his house last winter the wall collapsed :) that´s what we call damp coursing over here!!!

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As to weather or not the pellets would harm hedgehogs or other wildlife is a little debatable,

I think it all depends on the brand and quantity used.

Most commercial slug pellets contain a chemical called metaldehyde which is a cyclic condensation product of acetaldehyde (ethanal).

This chemical is quite toxic and could possibly be passed up the food chain so I would avoid it.

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(also trapped them with beer in an upturned flower pot, the slugs I mean!),

Much more environmentally friendly thank using slug pellets ;-)

But what a shameful waste of good beer :o

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It was like something out of Benny Hill, cue that awful music he used!!! he he

The piece of music you are referring to is called "Yakety Sax", written in 1963 by James Rich and first performed by Boots Randolph.

It is frequently used, due to its fast tempo and "yakety" sound to accompany chase sequences and slapstick comedy, hence Benny Hill's frequent use of it.

My son is quite a skilled player of both clarinet and saxophone and he will confirm that "Yakety Sax", due to its fast tempo and its sudden unmelodic note jumps is not an easy piece to play, its more of a players practice piece than a listeners "easy listening" piece (a bit like Be-Bop Jazz) which is why you probably see it as "awful"

It is actually a very cleverly put together piece, with a few bars of "Entry of the Gladiators" written into the middle of it and has been copied by many other artists and players.

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This seems fairly safe standard practice at the time HD

Cyanides were frequently used in steel testing (with the ferrocyanide and ferricyanide "Prussian Blue" test) for oxidation and rusting rates, Cyanide was also used in silver and nickel elctroplating (to make EPNS) where it gave a more uniform electroplated layer. It was also used along with ferric chloride to etch copper off of copper clad plastic sheets to make printed circuit board.

So quite a commonly used chemical in metalurgy.

We're getting a bit off topic here now.

I thought a topic called "Flora and Fauna" would be about an appreciation of the local wildlife we have here in Sheffield, with a shared interest in its identification and preservation.

Instead we seem to have gone off onto ways of declaring chemical warfare on the local wildlife to the point of driving it into local extinction.

Not really what I think we intended.

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We're getting a bit off topic here now.

I thought a topic called "Flora and Fauna" would be about an appreciation of the local wildlife we have here in Sheffield, with a shared interest in its identification and preservation.

Instead we seem to have gone off onto ways of declaring chemical warfare on the local wildlife to the point of driving it into local extinction.

Not really what I think we intended.

Ah but, ah but, some might say that it's modern day reliance on chemicals thats causing so much damage to our flora & fauna. When we have a position where most of the fish caught in the North Sea don't know whether they're Mick or Martha due to non-degrading human female hormones and our bee population is on the point of collapse

then perhaps we ought to be taking a step back.

The food industries would rather save a fraction of a penny and use synthasized chemical flavourings instead of using the real thing. When did you last read a food packaging that didn't mention "flavouring" instead of containing some of the food it was supposed to represent.

My own opinion is that mankind needs to take a step back and consider every possible outcome, because if not I can see a time when people will be travelling around in a pony & trap and lighting their homes with animal fat candles again.

Rant over, I promise to shut up now.

HD

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Ah but, ah but, some might say that it's modern day reliance on chemicals thats causing so much damage to our flora & fauna. When we have a position where most of the fish caught in the North Sea don't know whether they're Mick or Martha due to non-degrading human female hormones and our bee population is on the point of collapse

then perhaps we ought to be taking a step back.

The food industries would rather save a fraction of a penny and use synthasized chemical flavourings instead of using the real thing. When did you last read a food packaging that didn't mention "flavouring" instead of containing some of the food it was supposed to represent.

My own opinion is that mankind needs to take a step back and consider every possible outcome, because if not I can see a time when people will be travelling around in a pony & trap and lighting their homes with animal fat candles again.

Rant over, I promise to shut up now.

HD

I don't see that as a rant HD but more of a very sensible attitude to the world we currently live in.

As a science teacher all modern science courses seem to contain an element of "green science", modern man made planet threatening problems (like greenhouse gas emmisions / global warming / climate change) and more than a touch of ethical and moral issues (genetics / transplanting of organs / cloning) and I find it difficult to accurately put these ideas across convincingly to the youth of today that in a few decades when they inherit the planet it will be their job to look after it and preserve it for future generations perhaps a bit better than our generation has done.

People seem to think that because science and technology has given them so much that science can solve every problem there is. If something goes wrong in the world or with their health, they seem to think that an egghead in a white lab coat and glasses will come along and put it all to rights for them. But science doesn't work like that.

There also seems to be the view that "humans" are in some way superior, because of what they can do and have done to totally dominate the planet, to all other life forms on the planet, - that we are in some way 2more important" than any other living thing. A simple knowledge of how plants function by using the suns energy to make carbohydrates as food, and a knowledge of the inter relationships between organisms in food chains and webs would soon dispell that myth. Without plants and animals on this planet, we wouldn't be here either.

For all its size and power the world is a very delicate place and needs to be looked after carefully if it is to survive, but history seems to show that humanities destructive nature frequently exceeds his creative and nurturing nature, which is not a good thing.

Science is a powerfull tool, - it can work miracles in the right hands but can be very destructive in the wrong hands.

Perhaps, as HD suggests, we should judge all modern technological inovations carefully and make sure that we get the benefits we want from it without destroying something we will later regret.

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Now that the pedestrianised section of the bottom of the Moor is almost complete they currently have this "Wild Planet" display on with some very interesting photographs and displays of plants and animals.

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Is that really poo?? :o

You must have a big dog Steve. ;-)

No it is not my dog that did that UKL,

he is only a small dog and has never been trained to use a shovel. <_<

Can't be that many animals in the British Isles that dig a hole to plop in?

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No it is not my dog that did that UKL,

he is only a small dog and has never been trained to use a shovel. <_<

Can't be that many animals in the British Isles that dig a hole to plop in?

It looks the size of cow pat but they don't dig holes . he he

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My cat Becks, (no no named before the fashion brylcream boy that can't talk proper English) used to dig a huge hole, give me the thumbs, or rather the paws up then sh--t on the pile, No hole for her

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It looks the size of cow pat but they don't dig holes . he he

The answer is a badger latrine.

Badger Setts.

http://www.badgerland.co.uk/seeing/evidence.html

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