[Cob] fleas/ticks in sand (Udit)

[Udit]

Sorry. To clarify,  I'm referring to regular ole' fleas and ticks in the
sand, some of the locals I talked to referred to them both as 'sand ticks'
and 'sand fleas' though I know they're not the little crustaceans also
referred to as 'sand fleas'.

In my part of the Ozarks, there are a ton of ticks everywhere. (I've already
pulled one off of me this year.)  Deer ticks, dog ticks, all kinds of seed
ticks etc, are readily found in the sand I'm told. It's not that I
particularly have an aversion to insects, but I am concerned with the
prospect of cobbing with ticks and fleas. My son also has a severe reaction
to flea bites, which makes this more important.

I'm not concerned about if they got cobbed into the walls. I just don't want
us to get tore up while we're working with the mixing.

I had thought of boiling water but not heat in general. Of course!
There are a lot of people that use those farm-type flamethrowers around here
for their fields and ditches. I might just see if I can't get my hands on
one to cook the sand a little bit. I think that may be what I do.

Thanks everyone for your replies and happy cobbing!

udit

, Don Jackson <homesteadpower at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> Re: "The real reason I'm writing is because the local sand which is readily
> available has a lot of sand ticks/fleas"
>
> An internet search turns up no relevant results for "sand ticks".  Looking
> up "sand fleas" shows these are distantly related to fleas, and live at the
> beach, but also that some people call every creature that lives in sand a
> "sand flea".
> http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IG132
>
>
> So first I wonder, is this a real concern, or do you have a general fear of
> insects?
>
> Second, if this is a real concern, heat kills all insects.  If you could
> mound this sand in a pile and cover it with black plastic in the summertime,
> temperatures above 140 degrees kill all insects within a couple of hours,
> and temperatures of 120 kill most insects similarly (probably the extended
> period it would be in the sun), so the temperatures required aren't really
> all that great.  I've seen steam sterilizer units that fit in the back of
> dumptrucks that nurseries used for sterilizing 10 yards worth at a time, so
> this couldn't be too difficult.
>
> Once it's in the wall, the dryness of clay would suck the moisture out of
> insects.  Look how many insects infest clay dirt in the ground - I can't
> think of any.
>
> I don't see any one address this on the cob list (maybe it doesn't matter),
> but I would suspect the differences between washed river sand and sharp
> crushed sand might be more important, if you were really to examine the part
> that sand plays in cob house strength.
>
> Don Jackson
>
>
>
>
> ___________________