Whats your favorite insecticide for killing bugs??

[Bird]

Thanks, Paul. I've been doing a little searching on the Internet the last few minutes and it appears that you're probably right. The only time I've seen them in the daytime has been when I moved a splash pan under a rain gutter downspout or moved something in the garage, and they've run and disappeared very quickly.

Are other people finding lots of these geckos? Anytime we move anything outside in the daytime, one or more run for other cover, then they really come out at night. Tonight I counted 13 on the ceiling and walls of the 12' x 22' breezeway/deck.

 

[dancer]

If it sticks to the ceiling, it's probably a gecko. To my knowledge they're the only four-legged critters that can do that, and it's been proved, I believe, that they have "hairs" or maybe "tendrils" on their feet which interact at a *molecular* level with the surface they are on.

Back to the original thread, VIPER is a mixed-chemical, mostly permethrin as I remember (too lazy to go to the shop and pick up a can and read the label at the moment) applied as a dust. Works about as well on the general bug population as a 12-ga. shotgun loaded with #6's does on the general mammal population -- either kills it or scares it off. Good enough.

 

[Chuck52]

I don't have an opinion on the insecticides for houses, but I did try Safer insecticidal soap on my squash when the stink bugs started to get bad. That stuff is just a dilute soap solution, probably mostly potassium oleate, with a bit of elemental sulfur in it. It is labelled as safe to spray on vegetables up to the day you pick them, and with those ingredients I would say that is true. The only thing that bugs me is how much it costs. I figure if I could find a decent pure liquid soap, perhaps based on olive oil, and get ahold of some sulfur powder, I could make gallons of the spray for little or nothing. And it really did a job on the stink bugs. There were piles of dead bugs the day after I hit them with it. It does probably require full contact, but if it was cheap enough I'd saturate the plants with it. I sure didn't want to use Sevin or malathion, or much of anything else, since there were lots of squash just about ready to pick.

Chuck

 

[schmism]

for "general" control i use malathon.

for trouble areas my supply of dursban is running low.

My supply of diazon is doing well and should hould up for a couple more years.

btw my favort spot is the garden shed at estate sales. usually the people holding the sale are all to happy to get rid of the old "ortho" products.

my dad even managed to find soem old granulized DDT once....

 

[dancer]

...The only thing that bugs me is how much it costs. I figure if I could find a decent pure liquid soap, perhaps based on olive oil, and get ahold of some sulfur powder, I could make gallons of the spray for little or nothing. Chuck

How about making your own soap? A can or two of Red Devil Lye (relatively pure sodium hydroxide [NaOH]) and a bucket of lard or the stearic/oleic acid of your choice... Just like our grandmothers used to do!

 

[kensfarm]

Just use plain old dishwashing soap w/ some mineral oil.. spray early morning or late evening.

 

[Tom_H]

I have seen people make sun tea with tobacco and spray it on insects. It is highly lethal. They will go into frenzied convulsions and die. Bob is right about this.

As far as the bugs living on the plant, I'm not sure to what extent while the plant is alive and young. I worked high school summers at a tobacco auction in S. GA. They had burlap cloths with 120-150 lb piles of tobacco on each. The auctioneer walked down the line bidding off a new pile every 5 seconds or so. We came along right after him, tying off the bags our bidder had purchased, and 3 or so of us had to toss them up onto the top of a semi. It was a good 118 degrees inside that metal building with the sun beating down on the roof. By this time the tobacco leaves had dried a lot, and I guess the niccotine was more concentrated. A lot of leaves were breaking up into dust by that point. We breathed tons of that poison into our lungs and the stuff we coughed up from our lungs and blew out of our sinuses wasn't pretty. I guarantee you I never saw a live bug in that stuff, that's for sure.

 

[dmccarty]

However, I always end up with a pretty good headache the day after I spray (today). It's not as bad today since I flipped the lever in the cab to recirculate with the A/C, but I still have a headache. What would work just as well and possibly not give me the day after headache?

Can't help with the poison but have you tried a decent filter mask? Not an N95 but something with canisters? I bought a mask a few years ago from Ace that was around $30 since I was fixing moldy bathrooms. I could do hard work with this thing which is more than I can say about the N95 masks. I use it in the spring when I have to mow since it keeps me from having to cough out the gunk that builds up in my lungs.

The neighbors must think I have lost it wearing the mask and Work Tunes but I enjoy not coughing goo out of my lungs for the next couple of days. The mask I bought was rated to handle a bunch of chemicals.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

... Not dangerous ..

NOT TRUE NOT TRUE NOT TRUE

When I was 3-4 years old my cousin put a gecko down my pants!

I can say with AUTHORITY that a gecko can HURT YOU!

They BITE.

They LATCH ON.

THEY DO NOT WANT TO LET GO.

THEY HANG ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Breath Breath Breath.

Better.

Sorry, I did not mean to yell. But that picture from Bird started the flashbacks. Sorry. I'm getting calmer now.

I don't think I need to tell what THAT gecko hung onto. TBN is a family website afterall.

Now if they would just get rid of that danged Aussie talk'n lizard in the GEICO commercials I would not be so stressed....

Later,
Dan