[Strawbale] Re: psocids

[Rob Tom]

On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:20:16 -0400, peter van balen <peter at tentotwo...>  
wrote:


> Thanks for that link - I had a look at it and I'm pretty sure they are
> psocids (plus the odd plaster beetle, typeD: sylvanus bidentatus).
> But I'm still puzzled, though not overly worried, why they are there when
> the bales haven't been plastered yet, have been stored dry and  
> well-aired.


Ah yes. I got so carried away with the prospect of more sexy psocid images  
that I forgot to say what I wanted to say. Sorry eh ?

Some speculation as to why you still have psocids even though the bales  
*appear* to be dry.

This year, here in Kanata (Ontario, Canada) it rained almost every other  
day during the month of June and those days where it wasn't raining have  
been very humid. It rained yesterday and will likely rain again today and  
the (hot)air is so humid right now my dog is dragging her tongue on the  
ground.

Under such conditions, I would expect that any material with hygroscopic  
tendencies (wood, paper, cotton fibre, concrete, soil etc) would have  
moisture contents that are at or near a maximum.

So if in fact the bales were dry, the larvae from dry straw could  
conceivably have migrated to any other material that might provide a more  
moist environment for them to propagate themselves but I suspect that the  
straw itself would be pretty moist simply due to the elevated levels of  
ambient humidity that we've been experiencing.

ie Actual moisture content A 75% relative humidty in summer is  
substantially more mositure than even 90% RH in winter.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
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