Hello everyone,
I have a Golden Delicious Apple tree and two new sweet cherry trees. The Apple tree is large and mature and tolerating my spray program quite well.
The local Japanese Beetles were feasting on our cherry trees so I applied Imidan at 1.5 TBSP per gallon. I did use too much surfactant as I messed up the calculation. Now my sweet cherries are both Beetle Eaten and pesticide burned. I mixed a half gallon total for the two trees which a quart would have been sufficient.
The bugs evacuated the tree en masse and there are no more Japanese beetles to be seen.
I just want to adjust my program for next time. I assume first of all that that should make only 1 pass with Imidan and measure my surfactant correctly. Is the 1.5 TBSP per gallon too strong for seeet cherries?
Also I believe Imidan is limited to two passes per season.
Nothing beats the old Sevin with Carbaxyl but you can’t find it anymore for home use. Even 1/4 rate would keep Jap beetles away. I still have a jug of it so I haven’t tried anything different for beetles on my fruits. I do use the new Sevin with Zeta-Cypermethrin on sweet corn for worms. It keeps the beetles off the silks and is labeled for about everything.
I have never seen the need for surfactants with Imidan. Certainly if a plant was susceptible to burning then any amount of surfactant could amplify the injury.
Ok, I will check into Milk Spore. Sounds like I can get rid of Japanese beetles on my property, but not sure about the Beetles coming in from the neighbors.
Also will check out Surround.
It seemed like our netting worked really well, but it also seems like it could be hard on the foliage unless we build a full netted enclosure with supports.
Yes, surprised to see Sevin gone for home use. It used to be considered a super safe pesticide.
Imidicloprid helped a little but I drenched the cherries a bit too late with seeing that it is a systemic drench and takes a few days to get into the leaves.
I should try a half dose of Imidan with no surfactant next year but the U of Mass paper makes that seem like a bad idea.
Though I should mention that Imidan is packed in premeasured water soluble bags that are not designed to be broken. The product is sold that way to help insure worker safety when mixing chemicals and I believe all of the worker safety requirements listed on the label assume the bags are not broken. I’m guessing a respirator would be mandatory when mixing from a broken bag but I can’t find that on the label. We always wear a respirator even if the label does not require one.
Did not see any suggestions for a surfactant on the label either, but I could have missed it.
Imidan has a few other requirements that we have not seen on any other pesticide labels.
Here is the one that concerns us.
“Do not authorize any person who is not covered by the Worker Protection Standard (WPS), such as members of the general public involved in “pick-your-own,” “U-pick,” or similar operations, to enter a treated area for 14 days after application of this product.”
Here is another cause for concern
“Use in residential, park, or recreational areas is prohibited.”
Don’t intend to start any controversy about chemical usage but I though the additional requirements on the Imidan were interesting.
@jerryrva
It looks like Sevin has been superseded by Eight. (queue 7 ate 9 jokes). “Eight” seems like it might be a gentler product. Maybe this is the “New” Sevin you are referring to?
