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Vacuum chamber for bugs

Gingerbeard

New member
My mind was thinking about things, last night. Bugs, mostly. Since lots of things can't live in vacuums, what about putting soil or plants in a vacuum chamber? There are kits for purging shatter after blasting. Perfect size for smaller pots and plants. At the very least, the bugs would get some mad ear popping.
 
In Japan they have special spacesuits for bugs called nanosuits that are like a coat of armor. I don't know how fast things get around in the bug world but word might be out and all but peasant bugs could be suited up and ready for your little earthbound vacuum test.

Those crazy Asians, what will they think of next?
 
I wonder about the effect it would have on soil. I doubt much would survive. I have a 3 gallon vac chamber and a vac pump. Maybe time for an experiment?
 
Plants breathe through roots so i doubt even that would work...I think ya'll need to stop smoking so much...
 
I'm not talking about growing a plant in a vacuum. I'm talking about a couple minutes. It's too early to have 'smoked so much.'

You people never take me seriously. How does it serve a man to save the whole dope smoking world from bugs at the cost of his own machismo?
 
I'm not taking putting any kind of plants in the chamber at any point. Just soil that I plan to use for a grow. Wondering if it would kill off any type of bugs and such before I use it for a plant?
And I haven't even smoked yet.... lol
 
Are there beneficial anaerobic microbes in the soil? People heat soil. Can't see a few minutes of vacuum would kill anything more than heat.

Perhaps overpressure?
 
You didnt specify only a few minutes. True plants can live a little while in near vacuum like environments but so can humans..and also bugs. The plants would be stressed to near death and might hermie or never fully recover. There are much better ways to deal with pests IMO but give it a shot.
 
Bugs can survive without oxygen for 12 hrs and they have an exoskeleton that prevents implosion mostly so i doubt that would work well.
 
The only thing I can see that might hinder that is eggs. Some insect eggs can go dormant for long periods of time, like 6 months or more. I think heat is the best way to kill pests and eggs (and weeds) in the soil and it is already used by agriculturists. Also mixing diatomaceous earth in dry soil will kill bugs and eggs. I had a flea infestation due to a family of bunnies that lives in my back yard and the only thing that worked was DE sprinkled in the carpets and around the border of the house. I say dry cause wet soil will dissolve the DE into paste and render it ineffective as DE works by lacerating exoskeleton. Death by a thousand tiny cuts!
 
Tersky you are being a well informed downer about this. I don't know whether to thank you for the information or call you a weener for busting my chops. I'll go with the former.

There is a vacuum fumigation thing. Fumigating exactly nullifies my uber organic bug control method theory. I use DE. I think, on my last grow attempt, I put too much in with the soil. All the plants were stunted and had pH and calcium issues. I'm thinking the DE and Cal-Mag might have gone overboard.
 
My first job out of college was at a laboratory design firm. I don't know why I told you that. Maybe because of the autoclave reference. Not the ftw reference.
 
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