Bug Clear Ultra for flowers, fruit and veg
Contains 0.05g/l acetamiprid
Does anyone know if it is ok to use this on brassicas?
Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and lettuces are all listed as ok, along with info on maximum number of treatments per year and latest application before harvest, but brassicas are not mentioned.
The cabbage whites are appearing in huge numbers today, and I am not going to be around enough over the next few weeks to keep squishing/removing caterpillars, so would really like to be able to spray if possible.
There are some very knowledgeable people on this forum, so I really hope that one of them can advise me on this.
Bug Clear Ultra on brassicas?
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Can you net them?? Little blighters try to get through but if you support it with canes a fair bit away from the plants so they can't lay then tends to be OK. Will still have white fly though but easy to hose / wash / inhale them off.
Westi
Westi
Westi
I've got most of my Brussels sprouts under enviromesh, Westie, but three others were just under ordinary netting, which protected them from the birds but not from butterflies. The sprouting broccolies haven't been covered at all, and I think it is too late now that the butterflies have started laying their eggs.
If it is definitely not safe to use the Bug Clear Ultra on them, I will just have to do my best to keep rubbing off the eggs and picking off the caterpillars. The trouble is that I won't be here all the time, and although my sons will come over and water for me, I don't think their sense of duty will stretch to caterpillar picking!
I wonder what the commercial growers use on their brassica crops.
If it is definitely not safe to use the Bug Clear Ultra on them, I will just have to do my best to keep rubbing off the eggs and picking off the caterpillars. The trouble is that I won't be here all the time, and although my sons will come over and water for me, I don't think their sense of duty will stretch to caterpillar picking!
I wonder what the commercial growers use on their brassica crops.
Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
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The Mouse wrote:If it is definitely not safe to use the Bug Clear Ultra on them ,..
I wonder what the commercial growers use on their brassica crops.
It's not just that it may be unsafe to use Bug Clear, I doubt also that it would be effective. Insecticides which are formulated to kill piercing and sucking insects (aphids, whitefly, red spider mite and their like) tend not to be effective against biting and chewing pests (caterpillars, maggots and so on).
Whatever commercial growers use on their crops is unlikely to be available to the amateur. But there are other strategies to fight against caterpillars. Bacillus thuringensis, which I mentioned on another thread recently, is an extremely effective biological control. It only kills caterpillars, leaves no residue and is not toxic to birds or bees (Bug Clear is a neonicotinoid, which has a question mark over its safety for bees). I'm not sure where you'd get it, though. Try the Green Gardener, maybe.
It's a pity birds don't eat caterpillars. They are insanely bitter, is why — I tried one once. I can see how the Oompa-Loompas didn't think twice about going to work for Willy Wonka in preference to their diet of mashed caterpillars. (However, history does not record that in his employ they were all paid below minimum wage, suffered tooth decay, and died an early death of diabetes, obesity and heart disease.)
Allotment, but little achieved.
FelixLeiter wrote:The Mouse wrote:If it is definitely not safe to use the Bug Clear Ultra on them ,..
I wonder what the commercial growers use on their brassica crops.
It's not just that it may be unsafe to use Bug Clear, I doubt also that it would be effective. Insecticides which are formulated to kill piercing and sucking insects (aphids, whitefly, red spider mite and their like) tend not to be effective against biting and chewing pests (caterpillars, maggots and so on).
Whatever commercial growers use on their crops is unlikely to be available to the amateur.
I take your point, FelixLeiter, but Bug Clear Ultra does claim to kill caterpillars.
It was pure curiosity that made me wonder what commercial growers use. Actually, a bit of Googling suggests that acetamiprid is used commercially on brassicas, but in much smaller concentrations (if that is the right word) than in the bug spray I have. Admittedly, everything I found seemed to relate to the US.
It is a great pity that caterpillars don't make good food (at least, I'm taking your word on that, having no intention of ever trying them for myself ) We could have a year-round supply of protein in our own garden!
Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain