In article , "Paul J.
Dudley" wrote:



OK .. I said I would put this post to rest due to so much controversy
but I also told someone I would post any reply from the makers of
Sevin-5, so here 'tis:

Mr. Dudley,
Thanks for your question. Sevin is not systemic. Once Sevin has been
applied, it remains effective on plants up to 7 days or until rain or
overhead watering.
The white material you see is the residue, which contains no active
ingredients or chemicals. Water breaks the carbaryl down immediately.
You might try to use a produce wash that can be found in most grocery
stores. This may help remove some of the residue.

Hope this helps! Have a nice day,

J------ R------ * ( name withheld )

Consumer Product Representative
PO Box 24830
Lexington, KY 40524
1-800-969-7200


Wow. I always expect companies to dissimilate but that stuff's just
outright lying. ALKALINE water quickly breaks down carbaryl. In my region
where water is naturally soft, carbaryl can linger in water for a very
long time, according to the EPA's draft report titled "Carbaryl Health
Advisory." In neither case is it water that breaks it down, but bacteria
in the water shortens the carbaryl halflife. Strange the don't stick to
the best-case scenario possibility, as this outright lying reveals they
can't be trusted.

Because fact is, water does not affect the half-life of carbaryl, neither
immediately nor over time. It has little to nothign to do with the
halflife of carbaryl, and your Consumer Product Representative has just
kicked you in the nuts as a dope who'll believe any old crap, either not
caring enough to even know a truthful answer, or deciding lying to you is
best for their company.

Carbaryl remains at the application site with a half-life of 7 days to 28
days dependant on soil conditions, acidity, alkalinity, and temperature.
At low temperture in low-pH conditions its half-life can extend to 4
months. In wet conditions with lots of the right bacteria, the half-life
can contract to 24 hours.

Carbyral "loss" is primarily through uptake into plants, where it remains,
and secondarily from bacteria in soil (or in ground water). It is regarded
as largely non-toxic in crop plants because the human body excretes or
urinates three-thirds of it pretty much unchanged and the metabolized
remnant is well under anything that could ever be immediately toxic (long
term is another matter), though it can cause nitrosocarbaryl to form in
the stomach, with mutagenic risks the vendors will say is not caused by
carbaryl -- which is true though they leave out the fact that carbaryl is
the cause of the nitrosocarbaryl (source: Sieberg & Eisenbrand in Mutat.
Research 22; Elespuru et al in Nature 247; etc).

Carbaryl is not water soluable (it is soluable in ethanol or petroleum
ether); it is stable in heat and light. It appears on plants as a white or
grey powdery solid (crystaline under a microscope). If you can see it as a
white residue, it is ACTIVE in accordance with its average 7 to 28 day
halflife (longer in cold, low-pH, or low-bacteria conditions), and much of
what ceases to be detectable on the plant will then be taken into the
plant for ingestion by animals or people, to be transformed into "a potent
mutagen" in the stomach.

Carbaryl is not believed to be carcinogenic. However, when it comes in
contact with nitrite it gives rise to N-nitrosocarbaryl, highly mutagenic
at low levels of exposure, but carcinogenic only at high levels of
exposure. Nitrite is a common substance found in gardens, in human saliva,
as a food additive, so essentially any product with carbaryl in it must be
regarded as an INEVITABLE precursor to a toxic mutagenic. Carbaryl per se
has been shown in animal studies to have a harmful effect on chromosomes
and cell division (mitosis), and to damage kidneys and lungs, but not so
far shown to occur in humans.

But a vendor will NEVER say the simplest factual thing: Carbaryl has not
yet proven to be the direct cause of harmful or taxic affects at low
exposures in people, apart from giving rise to potent mutagens if
injested.

If you don't want to eat carbaryl, the only way around it is to never put
in harvestable plants. If you don't want animals to eat it, you won't put
it on anything at all. It's best case scenario is that it'll have an
immediate deadly effect on all honey bees and pollinators and crop yields
will fall dramatically.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com
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http://www.weirdwildrealm.com