"John S. DeBoo" wrote:

We now use merit which is several times safer and
over 90% effective ourselves. I don't think however that is it
available to the general public.

Hmmm, I wonder why? Probably can't figure out how much to charge the public I suppose or
its off the general market by agreement so that we can be overcharged by professionals.
Like a lot of other things anymore. I'm not in the least saying that Pros are unreliable,
do a poor job or are trying to shaft people, simply that its harder and harder for a DIYer
to save a few bucks anymore with this sort of stuff going on.

Merit is certainly available for residential use. It is the trade name for imidacloprid, a
chloronicotynil class of pesticides derived from nicotine sulfate. It is a neurotoxin which
disrupts the nervous system of the insect, primarily paralyzing the mouth parts and resulting
in starvation. It is registered for the control of various lawn grubs, among other insect
problems. While this product has been found to be of relatively low toxicity to mammals, it is
wise to keep in mind that nicotine is a pretty potent organic poison.

I can certainly understand your desire to control insect problems that plague your lawn, but
there is a much bigger picture to consider. The widespread use of pesticides is pretty recent
in the overall scheme of things (since WWII) and there has only begun to be sufficient time to
determine the long term impact many common pesticides have on environmental health and
personal safety. That is why many formerly common and so-called 'safe' or low toxicity
pesticides have now been pulled from residential use by the EPA - they have only recently
determined that many of these have long term accumulative and negative implications on
environmental health. And homeowners tend to be largest misusers of pesticides - either
through ignorance, apathy or overuse.

For homeowners (and environmentally responsible professionals) it is always preferrable to
attempt to control insect and disease problems via the least toxic and intrusive methods,
i.e., natural controls. There is a heirarchy of stages of control one should proceed with:
* tolerance - learning to live with the problem or understanding what the appropriate damage
threshold is (a reasonable percentage of insect damage or disease)
*cultural - making sure soil and growing conditions are optimum
*biological - using beneficial insects or other organisms
*natural or organic controls - pesticides which are derived from substances found in nature
(this is no guarantee against toxicity, however)
*chemical controls - manufactured pesticides, eg. Diazinon

You'll notice that chemical controls are at the bottom of the hierarchy, indicating they
should be used as a last resort, only after other methods have failed to succeed. When you
find that it is necessary to resort to any registered pesticide (including natural ones), it
is of utmost importance that you read the label carefully and thoroughly and follow the
directions to the letter. And personally, I would read whatever information I could find from
any reputable scientific source (that does NOT include the manufacturer) that provided me with
any additional information on the product in question before making a final decision for use.

The times, they are a changing!

pam - gardengal