Re: CULT: nasty Cygon and borer

 Linda Mann wrote:

> But Cygon is VERY NASTY STUFF
>
> =====================================
> John Montgomery wrote:

> I couldn't agree more Linda and I do believe that if Cygon were a new product it would
> never reach the market today.
> I admit that we do not have Iris borer here but I would build ships in a bottle before I
> would routinely apply Cygon as a precaution against anything in my garden. Not only is it
> dangerous stuff but with it you are waging a war that you CANNOT win. If Cygon is your
> weapon against borers, the borers are destined to win.
> As for spraying a systemic on buds and opened flowers, are you really willing to kill a
> hummingbird for the sake of an iris? Perhaps the Hummers are already dead, then are you
> willing to kill your neighbors bee hives? If you are willing do do that, are you willing
> to go without orchard produced fruit? We have got to come to the realization that our
> garden is part of the whole neighborhood and that what we do there affects everyone.
>
> I emphasize that I have had no experience with borers, but from what I have read here, it
> is quite possible to find them and dispatch them by hand. I expect this will not go over
> well as advice but if borers are a big problem, then perhaps you should only grow as many
> iris plants as you have time to visually check and manually kill (the borers,not the
> iris).
>
> I hope that none of us celebrated Earth Day last week by spraying Cygon. Please consider
> all of the consequences before loading up your sprayer.

Chris writes:

Some of these comments sound like we are getting a little irrational here. No one advocates
indiscriminate spraying but in some instances if the individual gardener decides a chemical
control is necessitated, judicious usage is perfectly acceptable. It is also my opinion that
the toxicity of Cygon is being highly exaggerated in this forum. It is a systemic that is
designed to control some pests which are problematic for some gardeners. For iris it is
sprayed on the leaves and absorbed by the plant to control iris borer. Do not spray it on the
flowers and buds as it may harm bees that are around and is also pointlessly ineffective. If
you spray at the proper times of the iris growth cycle the systemic is absorbed and the borer
population is dramatically reduced or eliminated well prior to bloom time.

Decide for yourself what you want to do.
And yes, I sprayed on cygon Earth Day.  I contribute to conservation in many areas and we
have plenty of bees and hummingbirds around.
May common sense prevail...
--
Christopher Hollinshead
Mississauga, Ontario  Canada  zone6b
AIS(Region 16), CIS, SSI
Director-Canadian Iris Society
Newsletter Editor-Canadian Iris Society
e-mail:  cris@netcom.ca
CIS website:  http://www.netcom.ca/~cris/CIS.html
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