the Soft Brown Scale has landed

[bil]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I actually thought about using it and I know citrus growers are using it to try to control Citrus Greening but all the research papers I found seem to indicate that traces are still found in the fruit during harvest, even when treating just after the blooms fall. It is one thing to buy fruit that contains pesticides but another to grow it. No matter, I seem to have the scale and mealy bugs under control, now, and in the spring, I can always hit them with Malathion when spraying my outdoor fruit trees and finish off whatever issues they might still have.

Interesting. Thanks for that. I have been using it, and don't really have an alternative if I want to grow citrus. Anyway, I am old and have to die of something. Is it possible to die from an overdose of orchids?
It might be worth trying.

[Leafmite]

The percentage found in fruit is usually considered to be safe according to my reading so I do not think you have much reason to worry. I would have used the systemic if the other methods did not work. With pesticides, there are cons and pros to weigh with each product. The systemics are nice because you aren't exposed to a toxic spray every two weeks so they are safer than using a powerful contact insecticide. Unfortunately, they don't control the coddling moth and apple maggot which is what we really need for the spray to do concerning our outdoor fruit trees. Malathion it is!

[Dollythehun]

Perhaps I am clueless. How are you using a systemic with bark medium? I've used it as granular "Marathon" in potting soil, and I've used it as a soil drench for Emerald Ash borer etc. But, what is your method for bark?

The research I read for outdoor culture stopped my using it because it was proven to harm honeybees and butterflies.

This is a matter best left up to the individual grower. What does your conscience say? Are you indoor or outdoor etc. We collect opinions and make the best informed decision we can within our parameters.

[Leafmite]

If you drench the soil after the flowers fall, the bees and other pollinators should not be affected as the concentrations in the flowers the following year will be very low. We need to be careful with the Malathion, too. In the past, people would start spraying before the blooms would drop and kill bees. We start spraying our trees with Malathion after the last blossom falls. The problem happens when people start using systemics on annuals or other plants that bloom all summer or treat with a systemic just as a plant is about to come into bloom. That is really what kills the honey bees. (someone treated trees one year with topical systemic just as they were coming into bloom and killed hundreds of thousands of bees--it was in the news) A systemic does accumulate in low concentrations in flowers and fruit, though, and can remain in a hard-wood tree/shrub much longer than one might expect. However, as it does not control the pests that I need it to control, I will be staying with the contact spray.

[Dollythehun]

I stopped using it as it was for annuals. For the trees, it it that or the chainsaw.

[jcec1]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Perhaps I am clueless. How are you using a systemic with bark medium? I've used it as granular "Marathon" in potting soil, and I've used it as a soil drench for Emerald Ash borer etc. But, what is your method for bark?

The research I read for outdoor culture stopped my using it because it was proven to harm honeybees and butterflies.

This is a matter best left up to the individual grower. What does your conscience say? Are you indoor or outdoor etc. We collect opinions and make the best informed decision we can within our parameters.

I use cache pots. So soak the plant up to it's brim in systemic for a couple of hours, then drain. This seems to have worked for me in the few instances I've needed to use it.

[bil]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

The percentage found in fruit is usually considered to be safe according to my reading so I do not think you have much reason to worry. I would have used the systemic if the other methods did not work. With pesticides, there are cons and pros to weigh with each product. The systemics are nice because you aren't exposed to a toxic spray every two weeks so they are safer than using a powerful contact insecticide. Unfortunately, they don't control the coddling moth and apple maggot which is what we really need for the spray to do concerning our outdoor fruit trees. Malathion it is!

I have a terrible problem with apple maggts or codling moth. The advise I have been given is to spray the tree as soon as the first flowers drop.

[Leafmite]

Once the blooms drop, we spray Malathion every two weeks until a month before harvest. We also prune the trees to keep them shorter and to leave enough room between branches so that the spray can hit all the fruit. If Malathion doesn't work (say, Japanese Beetles come along....) we spray Sevin. Sevin is ground zero for bugs but, in our experience, it causes fruit drop. Systemic, applied as recommended for fruit trees, applied as a drench at the roots, will not protect your fruit against apple maggots or coddling moth. Unfortunately, applied any other way, the fruit is not safe for human consumption. Again, there are always pros and cons to each pesticide. It would be nice if there were organic control methods that truly work. I would be a fan.

When I first started growing trees, we used some pesticides that are now banned. Lindane was the systemic we used to prevent the clear wing borer moth for our peaches, plums and apricots. We haven't found anything quite as effective as that. :|

Lindane - Wikipedia

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Perhaps I am clueless. How are you using a systemic with bark medium? I've used it as granular "Marathon" in potting soil, and I've used it as a soil drench for Emerald Ash borer etc. But, what is your method for bark?

The research I read for outdoor culture stopped my using it because it was proven to harm honeybees and butterflies.

This is a matter best left up to the individual grower. What does your conscience say? Are you indoor or outdoor etc. We collect opinions and make the best informed decision we can within our parameters.

In 30+ years growing orchids, I've never seen a bee or a butterfly visit my outdoor orchids. I use imidacloprid solely on my orchids and on my dogs (Advantage for fleas contains imidacloprid, but at a few hundred times more concentrated than spray for orchids). I once heard a University of Georgia bee expert give a lecture on bees, as introduction to the film "More than Honey", and when asked about neonicotinoids causing bee colony collapse, he indicated he did not see a correlation.

Using imidacloprid on orchids in bark, I spray every part of the plant above the bark, and also drench the bark. The treatment is repeated weekly for a full month and is very effective. I treat (a) when I see bad infestations of scale, mealy bugs, or (b) right before bringing plants indoors for the winter.

[Dollythehun]

Which is exactly what I do when needed.