Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Mosquito traps, chocolate nursery and volleyball credit.

Cory recently visited three of the gardens. All doing well.

Reading a recent article about controlling mosquitoes prompted a new project, since with the good rains, we are suffering from a large mosquito population.

Three different tools and lots of muscle were used to cut up old tires into pieces. The hack saw and machete worked best.

Next the pieces were placed around the perimeter of the campus.

Water that had been in the discarded tires with larvae was filtered and mixed with additional water to fill the new "traps".

After the larva are filtered out, a pheromone remains in the water that lets mother mosquitos know it is a "safe" place to lay their eggs.

Now the traps will need to have the water filtered  once or twice a week, destroying the immature mosquitos, and re-setting the trap. Any container that holds water could be used.

Cory visited the location where the big chocolate tree nursery is being built.

This USAID sponsored project plans to start thousands of cacao trees to be distributed around the area to small farmers.

Chocolate prices are good so many gardeners are planting cacao trees for the export market.

 Last year the new trees that were planted did not have real good survival due to the drought.

We should also give credit to the Haitian government for the volleyball tournament they sponsored at no cost to the players, including room, board and transport.

The olympic sports complex was built as an encouragement to Haiti's youth after the earthquake.

 It looks like many youth teams enjoy these modern facilities throughout the year.

The away teams for tournaments use the dorms and Port au Prince teams return home each night.




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