Experiment Gallery
Daily Notes
Leaf miners in our grapes turn out to be the (described in 2026) Phyllocnistis occidentalis, judging by the thin line of frass (https://bugtracks.wordpress.com/2026/08/28/grappling-with-grape-leafminers, my inat: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/404178324). I'm thinking about barcoding them to check, as a fun PCR excuse.
Leaf miner moth leaf bits in vial with parafilm. After a few days I noticed the film bowed inward, I thought parafilm let air diffuse through but maybe the O2 is being consumed (w/ CO2 dissolving in leaf tissue) faster than more can diffuse in? ANyway, poked some tiny holes to let p equalize, hopefully the tiny moths don't get out before I can smush em.
We had some pink something in one downstairs sink, just around the plug hole. I suspect Serratia marcescens , culturing some to investigate. Nice colonies so far.
I tried a heat shock transform of agrobacterium, got lots of colonies on the firs plate (suspiciously many, was expecting a handful at best). I streaked a few on new plate, no colonies even after a while apart from one blob near the start of streak #3. Hmm. Too many variables and guesswork, I might need to restart from known agro strain and use electroporation. Bummer for the project. Will try streaking a few more Cs but don't feel like making a whole lot more plates.