I’m just getting into the world of real pesticides, and I’ve been told this is the main one that is used locally on peaches.
https://www.hokkochem.co.jp/archives/nouyaku/アディオン乳剤
It appears the main active ingredient is Permethrin 20.0%.
I’ve been doing a bit of reading, and it appears to work on Peachtree borers, aphids, OFM, among others. Apparently Permethrin is even sprayed on clothing to kill mosquitoes.
I’m not sure there’s much point spraying it this year, as the harvest should start in a couple weeks.
But I’ve had serious enough problems with these ( mainly aphids) to ruin the crop on my tree this year.
I’ve planted another Peachtree and 2 nectarine trees which are bearing fruit for the first time this year. I’d like to get things organized for next year so all four trees don’t have serious problems. I also have a new Cherry Plum hybrid in the middle of all this.
I bagged the peaches and nectarines, but I think the cherry plums will probably not be practical to do that.
I’ve read that someone was spraying the stuff directly on the fruit to get rid of PC, so I imagine it can’t be that bad.
Anyone have experience using this stuff?
Thanks a lot
Permethrin can destroy the beautiful skin of some nectarine varieties. It did not seem to bother the peaches but I will never again use on apricot or nectarine.
I have a pesticide applicators license and thus many choices in pesticides. I don’t care for the characteristics of Permethrin. If you want to use a pyrethroid, I recommend Cyfluthrin.
The products that I looked at that had Cyfluthrin in then did not seem to be labeled for fruit trees. What brand product are you using?
Permethrin 36.8% is labeled for use on peaches and controls plum curculio, which is my main peach damaging insect. I am a novice on insect control but I plan using Permethrin 36.8% on some of my peach trees next year. I used Permethrin 10% for Japanese Beetle control this year and it worked very well. Looks like you are in japan so I have no idea what pests you face.
Bayer controls the patent for Cyfluthrin. If you wish to use a pyrethroid then it is the one I recommend. If not, then there are many other modes of action to consider against insect pests.
I haven’t used Permethrin, but I expect it is comparable to other pyrethroids that I do use. For peaches it should do the trick and if it is what local commercial growers are using I would respect their experience. Richard’s advice is not based on experience with your pests or your own ability to acquire specific materials. I too am a licensed applicator so I have access to a much wider range of pyrethroids than you do. The problem is that the commercial formulations are so concentrated and have such a short shelf life (much shorter than any other pesticide I use) that I have a growing problem with unused pesticide. Disposing of it legally is not easy in my state.
Thanks Richard for sharing.
Richard, I was unaware of this product. How would you rate it compared to Triazicide- how is it superior in your mind.
@alan – as you know, with pyrethroids a thorough spraying on the undersides of leaves is necessary for success. So if sprayed correctly I think both these products are equally effective but Triazicide can be harsh on some evergreens and also has poor consequences for the environment later on.
go on…
Oh, and I do not know leaves need to be sprayed on the undersides- gonna kill any caterpillars that eat them no matter what side the poison is on. Can’t speak form experience as I use a hand gun at a couple hundred pounds pressure so not much is likely missed if I aim in the right direction. Of course, the main function for us fruit growers is to protect the fruit and not the leaves when applying insecticide, and even with my limited experience using a weak hand powered sprayer coverage is never a problem, even for protecting leaves. It is when applying copper that I’m careful about coverage with a hand sprayer and if I used other fungicides through a hand sprayer the issue would be the same- especially SI’s.
With the exception of systemics, consumer pyrethroids have a staying power of up to 10 hours. To effectively kill eggs and pupa it takes a direct hit with the pyrethroid.
I have many evergreen fruiting plants.
I disagree, pyrethroids, unlike the organic pesticide they share a common chemistry with, should last 7-10 days. The deposited poison kills long after it dries on fruit. I routinely protect apples and other orchard fruit with two applications of a pyrethroid, starting at petal fall and followed up 10-14 days later. There are usually no plum curculio in trees when spraying occurs. and they are killed or repelled as they come from other locations. Anything only lasting 10 hours would not be effective against PC unless you were spraying something like every day. They fly in from the woods and can be devastating in a matter of hours.
The trees I manage this way have no major problems with any insect pests until at least a couple weeks following final spray. This is not one orchard I’m talking about- over 100 for decades now.
Yes. That’s a feature of Permethrin I don’t care for. It has a very long half-life time that continues into waterways for a year.
My goal is to kill aphids, thrips, and leafminers on fruit trees prior to the adult stage. My indicator is when they start to appear on the underside of Rose leaves and sepals. In my environment, you must spray at that stage on all plants or face inhalation in the next 3 days.
That is a reason to be concerned of their use in commercial agriculture, although its presence in the waterways is as contaminated sediment and it does not actually contaminate the water itself- the sediment settles to the bottom of bodies of water as I’m sure you know. However, this is a forum for the growers of small stands of fruit trees who tend to use relatively small amounts of pesticides surrounded by large buffer zones and nothing we use is going to have significant impact on the environment as a whole.
Even in the realm of commercial agriculture, most of the issue with this class of pesticides has been in your state and particularly in your part of CA and the known dangers are to a very small realm or organisms- not that this should be overlooked. I just don’t think it should be the over riding concern to the steward of a couple dozen fruit trees.
What I don’t like about pyrethroids in the context of this forum is that they kill too widely and destroy several beneficial predators. This can lead to mite outbreaks and similar problems, but the options for home growers are limited and pyrethroids offer a high level of safety to mammal species. Pesticides are like medicines and always come with a list of unintended side affects. You have to weigh your choices, but it isn’t helpful to exaggerate actual risks.
Those who have the time, dedication and willingness to accept lower productivity of fewer types of fruit with a lot more labor (when growing in the humid regions) can avoid these problems by not using any poison at all, and I respect and admire this dedication, but for the rest of us, we pick our poisons and use them as best we can. I have never experienced or witnessed any consequences to this kind of pesticide use beyond the outbreaks I mentioned in over 25 years of producing fruit in New York.
I switched this year to Hi-Yield 10 % permethrin on all of my stone
fruits and had very good results. Only sprayed twice, after petal fall and
after fruits were formed. It also had good kick back. Much better than anything
else I’ve used. I still use Triazicide for borers, because I have a large bottle
I want to use up, but any good insecticide will work for borers. I only spray
once for them.
The only drawback for peaches I’ve found in the northeast with pyrethroids is the possible encouragement of peach aphids at a couple of sites, which can be a troublesome pest. Assail may be a better chemical for some for this reason. Here, it also does a good job with peaches and actually does have research proven kick-back and is rain-fast.
Kick-back is a pretty hard thing to determine anecdotally Ray- I didn’t think pyrethroids were supposed to possess this quality if my memory serves (and that service is questionable).
Txpan, thanks for the info about the skin. I’ll try to only use pesticides after I’ve bagged my peaches and nectarines, so maybe I don’t need to worry about that.
Alan, your approach sounds very reasonable. It’s always good to provide reasons for a course of action, otherwise it’s just baseless opinion, or worse.
That’s interesting you mention the aphid problem – I thought permethrin also killed aphids? So far for me, aphids destroying peach leaves are my main ( but not only) problem.
There is also a lot of borer activity and gell oozing.
I’m bagging all of my fruit so far, and haven’t noticed any problems of the fruit itself being directly attacked. This may change in the future, or I may change my bagging practices, as I tend to bag them very early which is not very efficient.
Anyway, thanks for the explanations, it’s very helpful for a new person like me.
Yes, you probably could keep spraying to kill the insects that predators would have killed if you hadn’t killed them, but there are other insecticides not so hard on beneficials. Cornell only recommends commercial growers use pyrethroids in semi-emergency situations because of their tendency to over-kill. Homeowners don’t have so many options.