Diatomaceous earth to kill insects

Anyone use something like this to distribute diatomaceous earth or some other technique.

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@danzeb

My way was much less sophiscated. I took a large glass pickle jar when i got done with the pickles and jabbed a bunch of holes in the top with a cheap boot knife making it look like an oversized salt shaker. Twist the knife a bit making the holes slightly round or use a drill, nail etc… Use it for applying sevin dust , fertlizer etc. as well.

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that seems sophisticated compared to my old Parmesan cheese containers… that i spread fertilizer with.

If i want to do a big job i can screw that lid on a mason jar…

Those lids make for fancy city folk drink containers too.

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I just grabbed some DE powder and hand spreaded it on the leafs. It really controls red mites, scales, aphids on the house plants during the winter.

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all our drinking glasses are mason jars. wide mouth pints and what i call combat sized, the qt. ones. :wink: cheap to replace if you break one. i find all kinds at garage sales.

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Up here at garage sales they have been trying to sell mason jars pretty much for retail prices.

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they were rare to find in 20’-21’ but i guess the hoarders are starting to get rid of their overstock now.:wink:

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I have actually heard some folks who have used diatomaceous earth sprays. I am not sure of the brand, but it’s something I would like to try…

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I bought a similar hand pump sprayer to kill wasps nests with using sevin powder several years ago. This year I bought a big bag of diatomaceous earth powder and am having good luck using it with the pump sprayer. The DE powder seems especially nice as it can be applied to the underside of leaves for aphids in a fine coat and I’m just now starting to dust around inside my blackberry jungle where I had terrible SWD last year. I am hoping a regular dusting of DE will keep SWD in check this year

I am also blasting Japanese Beetles with it as well. You can use a good amount of DE with these but it is cheap

My duster is a larger one than that picture and I wouldn’t want to go any smaller. It is a bit messy and a pain to load up so having a bigger canister is nice

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What duster do you use?

And I assume you are not using any liquid? My thought was that I heard someone mixing it with water and Neem and spraying.

Dietematious earth is usually dry when used.

The duster I have is this one, it works well:
image

It may be a little early to call it but dusting my raspberry and blackberry jungle seems to be working to keep SWD down. For this reason alone I will keep doing it - I couldn’t get a truly ripe blackberry last year

I pretty quickly realized that spraying Japanese beetles with DE does not work. I have started to use the open container of the duster to collect the Japanese Beetles and let them swim in the DE and that will kill them in 24 hours

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I always mix some DE in my soil mixes. The angry little shells do not really degrade much. And a lot of earth living creatures will avoid it.