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#1
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General purpose insecticide?
Is there an effective general purpose insecticide, fungicide, miticide that
will get most of those rascals out there? It is troublesome to spray for all those critters separately. I am pretty sure I've got them all. Anything close? -- Walter www.rationality.net - |
#2
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yes
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#4
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Bad idea. Without insects, you wouldn't get any fruit, squash, peppers,
cucumbers, etc. (Tomatoes and corn are wind pollinated.) The bees in this country have enough problems with natural predators without having to worry about people spraying their space indiscriminately. Some fungi protect plants against other diseases. There are predatory mites that protect plants against other insects. A much better approach would be to understand what is going on in your garden. When you have a problem, address that problem specifically and in such a way as not to generate more problems. To answer your specific question: no, there is no general purpose substance that will eliminate the rascals without also eliminating the useful organisms. Walter R. wrote: Is there an effective general purpose insecticide, fungicide, miticide that will get most of those rascals out there? It is troublesome to spray for all those critters separately. I am pretty sure I've got them all. Anything close? |
#5
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if you dont know what you have or if you have it, then no. there is no
"general insecticide" because different insects require different control. It dosent make sense to spray for mites unless you have them, since you will harm the beneficial mites. "im pretty sure ive got them all" isnt a good argument, you need to know what the problem is. The doctor wouldnt give you a general medicine and say, well, you could have the flu, or maybe a cold, or maybe pnuemonia, but this will take care of whatever you have would they? This is why you cant buy very many chemicals anymore, homeowners who have no idea what they are doing just spray everything they can get thier hands on with little understanding of what they are actually doing. On a final note, we only have one earth, spraying mass amounts of chemicals will not help to preserve it. Toad |
#7
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That is an intensely stupid idea. You have no business gardening.
"Walter R." wrote in message ... Is there an effective general purpose insecticide, fungicide, miticide that will get most of those rascals out there? It is troublesome to spray for all those critters separately. I am pretty sure I've got them all. Anything close? -- Walter www.rationality.net - |
#8
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Your invective has no purpose in this or any newsgroup. It does not
help anyone and makes you look bad. Doug Kanter wrote: That is an intensely stupid idea. You have no business gardening. "Walter R." wrote in message ... Is there an effective general purpose insecticide, fungicide, miticide that will get most of those rascals out there? It is troublesome to spray for all those critters separately. I am pretty sure I've got them all. |
#9
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Anyone older than 15 who is not aware of the dangers of pesticides should
not be allowed to leave their bedroom. Ever. "Stubby" wrote in message ... Your invective has no purpose in this or any newsgroup. It does not help anyone and makes you look bad. Doug Kanter wrote: That is an intensely stupid idea. You have no business gardening. "Walter R." wrote in message ... Is there an effective general purpose insecticide, fungicide, miticide that will get most of those rascals out there? It is troublesome to spray for all those critters separately. I am pretty sure I've got them all. |
#11
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In article , lgb
wrote: In article , says... Anyone older than 15 who is not aware of the dangers of pesticides should not be allowed to leave their bedroom. Ever. I'm aware of the dangers inherent in driving my car or riding my motorcycle, too. That doesn't stop me from doing so. Nor of having an almost perfect driving record for 55 years (a couple of speeding tickets). Your attitude strikes me as fanatical. There are times when pesticides are called for. And different compounds used have greatly varying toxicities. For example, Sevin, which is quite toxic, is the only thing I've found that will knock out elm beetle grubs before they deleaf my elm trees. I wear coveralls and a respirator when I use it, usually once a year. Malathion, OTOH, is relatively inoucous and I use it to kill thrips and aphids on my rose bushes and Japanese honeysuckle with short sleeves, no gloves, and no respirator. I realize this won't convince you, but I wanted to make others aware that not all of us are environmental fanatics or, on the other side, reckless rednecks who spray evrything in sight with the deadliest stuff we can find. So that's all I'm going to say on the subject. What convinces me is stories such as you tell of always needing so always using all sorts of toxins for all sorts of garden problems. i never use them, never need them. My elms are healthy, the roses are healthy, the honeysuckles are healthy, never been assaulted by thrips, have gotten rid of aphids with nothing more than a couple drops of dishwashing soap in a gallon of water, sometimes just with the water. Why is that my garden does fabulously & never requires ME to get a respirator, moon suit, & five kinds of toxins to spray about? God loves me but hates you? I'm lucky, you're not? Or are we both experiencing the results of our own actions? It's quite clear that chemical dependency breeds chemical dependency by throwing gardens completely out of balance. The longer one gardens organically, the better that semblance of natural balance that could never be sustained in a soup of recurring toxic assaults. Chemical-dependent gardens are perpetually stressed from being perpetually out of wack. Toxins have killed so many beneficial insects & soil microorganisms & so weakened the plantlife that all such a gardener can do is try to patch over the damage with the same array of toxins that caused the damage. Thrips tend to be a greater problem where beneficial insects have been removed from the environment -- predator insects are always slower to return than are pests, so pests return rapidly & further toxification is undertaken before even the slightest semblance of balance can be restored. And anyone who thinks they need malathion for aphids just isn't thinking about these things rationally; it's like if an itchy toe could be fixed by scratching it for a couple seconds, & you decide to bang on it with a sledgehammer as the best line of defense. I have to assume the other chemical decisions were as unsoundly based, because the rational you've dismissed as radical. You posit a worst-case scenario of thrips stripping elms, yet you can't kill elm thrips without also killing a whole array of beneficial insects thus making the environment MORE inviting to thrips for the next cycle. The LASTING method of thrip control is with predatory mites, soil mites, lady beetles, & nematodes -- but everytime you toxify the environment instead, you destroy a dozen beneficial components of the environment sledgehammering the one harmful pest, thus causing the problems to escalate year by year rather than diminish. It's amazing to me that people in love with their toxic methods call those of us who don't use toxins "radical," yet you keep getting pests in your garden while I do not. If there were legitimately a problem in my garden that only synthetic toxins had any chance of taking care of, I would consider that option, but I've gardened since the 1960s & over time even the "exceptions" I once thought were necessary were not exceptions at all. An organically balanced garden is a healthy garden. A chemical-dependent garden is not. It sometimes takes more patience with organic methods -- in three years it is possible by biological means to get rid of Japanese beetles once & for all, but people who prefer toxins will be using them forever annually patching over a problem that will never cease. To me you sound like the radical, not because you require toxins so much as you require blinders. You believe you can't get rid of aphids without synthetic pesticides, so why is that I can do so very easily. You have harmful pests that you believe cannot be controlled without harsh pesticides, but I have so few harmful pests that their damage, if any, is never visible. You have to spray your shrubs & trees because they are attacked by pests & disease, but mine are neither diseased nor infested though I do not spray even with organically approved pesticides let alone the nastiest stuff you rely on. Why would your garden be so doomed without annual applications of sundry toxins, but mine thrives without them? I don't believe I'm just lucky & you're cursed by God; their are rational reasons for my not having the problems that afflict your garden, & those reasons are methological. You've made an emotional or political decision (rather than a reasoned or scientific one) to dismiss effective methods as "radical" if they do not require toxins. And so yhou put on your moonsuit & respirator to take care of problems that keep recurring because of your actions. That's very much like banging your head into a wall & when you discover your head is injured, bang it a second, third, & fourth time, never realizing the problems are returning because of, not in spite of, your actions. -paghat the ratgirl -- Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson |
#13
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As we all know, Doug has always been a expert gardner. He has never
been a neophyte and has never made any mistakes and has never had any questions. Anyone who cannot meet these standards is not welcome in his world. Betty |
#14
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Betty Harris wrote:
As we all know, Doug has always been a expert gardner. He has never been a neophyte and has never made any mistakes and has never had any questions. Anyone who cannot meet these standards is not welcome in his world. Betty Not including any of the original post in your reply kinda makes your post useless. -- Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington USDA Zone 8 Sunset Zone 5 |
#15
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In article A52qe.23006$KQ2.10027@trnddc08, "Travis"
wrote: Betty Harris wrote: As we all know, Doug has always been a expert gardner. He has never been a neophyte and has never made any mistakes and has never had any questions. Anyone who cannot meet these standards is not welcome in his world. Betty Not including any of the original post in your reply kinda makes your post useless. I think he said that the best general purpose insecticide is the thumb & index finger. -paghat the ratgirl -- Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson |
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