Diatomaceous Earth

Anyone had any experience with food grade powder?

Define experience...

Have I eaten it? No, but I've seen it eaten.
Does it really kill crickets? Yep.

Yes, I didn't think of that. I like crickets. Do they do bad things? I used to raise them, put them in the freezer, shake the bag so their legs would fall off and then feed them to baby birds. cool
But my concern is if they kill earth worms. The place I bought the DE from says it will not, but then they say it will kill worms in cats and dogs. I'll have to do my own testing with unrelated worms.

Dorkasaurus,
Really you have eaten it we all do that's why its food grade, its in a lot of our food to keep it fresh and from clumping ,

Wormfood,
I feed it to my dogs as a wormer (mixed in their dry food), and dust it in their pens as a flea, tick, fly's etc killer . It will kill hard shell/skin bugs. But I don't think it will kill earth worms. From what I'm told it has sharp edges and cut the shells of the flea, tick, fly's etc . its a very fine powder.
The people I buy it from eat it daily.
Cheryl
edited to fix a typo that was pointed out to me :)

This message was edited Mar 14, 2009 11:11 AM

oh! thank you! thank you! I think I posted on 3 sites and you're my first answer. So why doesn't everyone use it? I paid $14 for 10 pounds. That's not too bad for all it does. And I never put anything on the plants if I see buds coming out. So as not to kill the good bugs, etc. BTY cut is spelled c-u-t :)

WOW .. I pay $33.00 for 50lbs ....
They sell it in the pet order catalogs too for about $15 a lb .. crazy
LOL Yes I know how to spell CUT Im just not good at typing .... Im the typo Queen!!!

Here's the web site. It did cost $14.99 to send it, so maybe it cuts even.
http://www.earthworkshealth.com/

Paul James the Gardener Guy on HGTV says diatomaceous earth will kill earthworms. Other sources say it does not. I've used it with houseplants, but not outside. Earthworms are my friends :)

Thank you Honeybee, I'm going to do my own test (one day when the world stops spinning so fast). I know there are different grades to it and the food grade is not supposed to kill invertibrae. But I raised every worm in my yard, that's dumn, I got the worms that raised the worms that live in the yard that Nancy tries to keep chemical free. and to risk killing them is even dumber. Then I would be dumb AND dumber!
Thanks for the info, I love that guy
Nancy

I found these while surfing my old posts.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/513178/
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/888745/
I don't agree that the DE loses it's sharpness after getting wet, I don't know where the info comes from but I can't back my opinion either, except knowing that it comes from the sea.

Food Grade DE doesn't come from the Sea thats the kind you use in your swimming pool .. it is mined in either Nevada, Washington, and Oregon
it doesn't lose it sharpness when wet ..we mix it with water and spray our yard and dog pens ...
here are a few links

http://www.internet-grocer.net/diatome.htm

http://www.motesclearcreekfarms.com/ASP/articles/DE.asp