When do you spray Avaunt? Do you use it on your peaches and apples?
Wondering if it may be good substitute for Imidan at Petal Fall.
Rick, from my reading Avaunt, is not labeled for stone fruit. I use as my 1st and 2nd petal fall spray. Think I used it as a late summer spray also last year. Label says Max of 4 sprays a year. What I like about it and Actara which I also got is they are concerned lower risk to humans and do require use of a respirator unlike Imidan.
Where did you read that? Here is the label. http://www.keystonepestsolutions.com/labels/Avaunt.pdf
Avaunt is superior to Actara as a general purpose insecticide because it is more species specific. Most pesticide recommendations for commercial growers suggest that pyrethroids only be used in emergency situations because they tend to throw an orchard ecology out of balance and encourage mite flare ups and other issues (white fly, peach tree aphids, mites…) because of their exceptionally wide range of kill including beneficial predator insects. Another problem with pyrethroids is short shelf life if you are not a big commercial grower. Hard to know even by the second year how effective it will be. They also lose efficacy in summer heat.
Thanks for setting me straight Alan, was going off middle age memory which is dangerous. I have only been using Avaunt for apples until now but sounds like it can be a good spray for my peaches.
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Wait til you are my age. Now I double check, which I did before responding to your comment.
What’s the difference between “for agricultural use only” and “Use only in commercial and farm plantings. Not for use in home plantings.”? The label available online at Keystone and elsewhere says the latter.
Means the same thing, but I can’t locate those words on my label and I’ve gone over it a couple of times, originally expecting to find. I believe they haven’t updated the label. What page do you find that on?
The label says says “pomme fruit - except pears…” What is the significance of that statement?
Does it mean just that it is ineffective against pear pests or that it makes the pears unsafe to eat?
In my orchard if I spray apples I will hit pears etc.
Mike
From the Keystone website, see page 3 of the PDF file, left-hand column, below the box entitled “Agricultural Use Requirements”. It is the sixth sentence under that box.
It means those are not the instructions for pears. Those instructions are immediately above
I finally found it buried in there. It does not say it is restricted to agricultural use legally, but says to use it only in commercial or agricultural plantings. I wonder if that has always been the wording. It reminds me of the Imidan label saying “not for residential use”. The legal meaning is not as specific as one would expect. Usually the label says something is prohibited if it is a legal issue. I’m really not sure of the meaning, but thanks for sticking with it and straightening me out.
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That’s good to hear! I may be buying it for next year then, in my battle against PC. Thanks for notifying us!
better check my edit.
Gotcha. Thanks for the update.
In general, I am an advocate for advances in inorganic chemistry, for these have helped propel us forward in many ways. However, when it comes to spraying some things in the backyard, like Imidan with its multi-day REI, I get a little hesitant because I have small kids and a pet roaming the yard, climbing the trees, etc. With Avaunt, though, the 12-hour REI is an implicit admission that Avaunt isn’t as much of a concern as other pesticides.
I had planned on using Actara this year, but after reading the label multiple times, I just couldn’t make the purchase. For now, I’ll stick with my limited sprays of spinosad mixed with captan, and I’ll keep bagging apples (900 last year, 360 to date this year!). There is no REI for ziplocks 
.
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Yeah, kids complicate the equation. You don’t want to do anything with any chance of harming them. Any chance at all.
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Oops,.
Skim reading is not a good practice on technical stuff.
Will limit it to when I read the funnies.
Mike
All my reading is as careless as skim reading at this point of spring. I’m exhausted!
Even after being told it was there, I had to read the label 4 times to finally find the sentence that contradicts the entire lead of the topic. Oops
Not my worst mistake of the season. Yesterday, moments after finally completing the last round of 2 essential sprays to the orchards I manage, I celebrated by buying a Fiskars brush and root hatchet, which I didn’t really need. I tested it out on some brush and it bounced off my target and put a big gash just below my knee. Turns out to be an exceedingly dangerous design, and probably not only in my tired, stupid hands. I’ve never seen so much blood in the real world and was so enraged I threw the thing at a rock wall, but hit a hose instead- so I was losing water and blood at the same time.
Turned off the spigot and tied up the wound with a towel and electric tape. 3 hours waiting in urgent care and several stitches later I have woken to a very stiff knee and wondering how I will get through the required rounds today.
I shall be patient towards all forms a human idiocy for a while, being humbled by my own.
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Its very confusing that so many insecticides start with the letter “A”
actara
altacor
asana
assail
avaunt
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Based on the rave reviews in this forum, I hope you used temflex. Apparently it will expand so that you don’t girdle your knee. 
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That’s probably pretty funny, but after a day of painful hobbling while I thinned peaches and plums and grafted some J. plums, I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself and wondering when I will be able to operate the clutch in my truck without suffering excruciating pain. It’s OK though- my wife is here to offer me sympathy. Keep the jokes coming- hopefully my sense of humor will be back tomorrow.
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Alan I’m sorry to hear your plight. It’s no fun when one is sleep deprived. I have to do everything right to get a good nights sleep. When one can’t dangerous things can happen. I’ve learned to be very careful with axes after doing about the same thing many yrs ago.
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