[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

[Lawrence Lile]

I Hawaii it is an approved termite control method to use a special size
sand around a building - the grains are too big for termites to lift but
too crumbly for them to tunnel through.  This might fly in other areas.
I put regular sand from the quarry around my house, kinda like the
landscaping effect of this anyway, and if I have termites I might spring
for the special type of sand.  A termite gap - at least 8" between wood
and soil composed of bare conctrete, is also important for termite
inspection.  

http://www.utoronto.ca/forest/termite/tips7.htm

http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/lewis/fieldcompa.pdf

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/434/28664.pdf

 
 
Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP
Senior Electrical Engineer
Project Solutions Engineering
573-443-7100 X 221
573-999-3450 Cell
1390 Boone Industrial Dr Suite 200
Columbia MO 65202

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Leslie
Moyer
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 4:12 PM
To: GREENBUILDING at LISTSERV.REPP.ORG
Subject: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help
Save the World
Importance: Low

I came across this book on Amazon a few weeks ago:

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
by Paul Stamets
*http://tinyurl.com/24q9ta

*I ordered it via interlibrary loan and I didn't have time to read it 
all, but it was a very exciting book. Generally, it discusses the many 
roles that fungi play in the environment. Relative to this email list, 
though, it had a section on biological pest control (termites & ants) 
using fungi and other sections on site protection and biological 
remediation of brownfields using fungi.

In particular, I was excited by the possibility of fungal termite 
control as termite pesticides seem to be one building code necessity in 
many places in the US (in the south certainly: 
http://www.agoodinspector.com/termite_map.htm ).  In my research I 
haven't found any real alternatives to poison (borax is one that is 
mentioned often, but I'm not convinced of its effectiveness nor its 
safety--at least on my building site near a pond), except for avoiding 
the use of wood...and even then some building codes will require 
preventative pesticide.

The book tells how Stamets used mycelium spore selective breeding to 
produce a late-maturing fungal spore that "fools" the termites into 
taking it back to their colony, killing the queen and, therefore, the 
colony.  The mycelium is good forever--never needs to be replaced--and 
is completely harmless....except for the termites.

Paul Stamets website is here:  http://www.fungi.com/  I recently 
contacted them to ask when/how the termite-control product would be 
available commercially.  Here was the reply: 

***********

Thank you for contacting us about our Mycopesticide project. 
Unfortunately we do not have a product we can offer you at this time.. 
We are still in the EPA approval stage and we cannot offer product to 
the public yet. We hope 2007 will bring some forward progress in the 
this area of research as we believe that this product could reduce or 
even replace many of the conventional treatments currently available.. 
We will be posting more info as it becomes available on the front page 
of our website www.fungi.com

Respectfully,
Jim Gouin
Fungi Perfecti LLC

***************

Even after EPA approval, I presume that building codes that allow one to

use this product INSTEAD of synthetic pesticides may still be a long 
time coming.  Nevertheless, it's exciting. 

If you're interested, here is a video excerpt from the plenary speech 
that Paul Stamets gave at the 2006 Bioneers conference:  
http://tinyurl.com/yu2tpp

I thought some others here might be interested in tracking these 
developments.

--Leslie Moyer / Oklahoma







_______________________________________________
Greenbuilding email list
List info:
http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_listserv.repp.or
g
List email: Greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Managed by BuildingGreen, Inc. http://www.buildinggreen.com
      publisher of Environmental Building News and GreenSpec(r)
Hosted and archived by REPP / CREST http://www.crest.org