CULT-aphids-pyrethrins

Greetings,

I concur that washing aphids off with water is good solution in most cases,
but there are times when the plant material is floppy, or young, or otherwise
unable to take a firm blast or unable to stand a lot of water.  A little
chemical help in a gentle spray is called for. Now, I am not as enthusiastic
about insecticidal soap as many people. It works well, true, but one must be
exceedingly careful about applying it because you can easily burn the merry
heck out things, even with Safer's, and certainly with dish soap. The chief
virtue of the latter is that it is cheap and one tends to have it around. I
have noticed it can burn when used as a faux spreader-sticker as well.

I would like to recommend an effective product which I use. It is a pre-mixed
benign botanical-based spray---pyrethrum, that is chrysanthemums---made by
the Schultz people. Schultz Instant House and Garden Spray in a pump bottle
with an adjustable sprayer. Dirt cheap---about four bucks for a nice big
bottle at the home improvement warehouse place. About seven for one twice as
big. I have used it on a lot of things and a lot of bugs over the years and I
like it. One doesn't hear as much about pyrethrins as one did at one time,
but  as far as I am aware they are still considered at least as safe as soap.


Anner Whitehead,  Richmond, VA
henry Hall  henryanner@aol.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index