I just shelled out $30.00 for the large bottle of spinosad and didn’t know whether I’d waste my investment (as well as my apples) storing it in our garage. The good people at Monterey Garden Spray sent me this information:
If the product freezes, just warm it up and shake well and it will be fine. This product has a 5 year shelf life.
We are located in Fresno, CA and in the summer our warehouse reaches temperatures in excess of 100° so the heat will not affect this product.<<
Good to know. I should have gotten more when it was on clearance.
On a similar thought, I was also wondering if anyone had any cheap options for spinosad.
The stuff is relatively expensive since the concentration is so low. ~$2 / gallon
I noticed that Conserve SC has 23 times the concentration for only 4.5 times the cost of the .5% concentrations. $136 for a quart though. That should make over 350 gallons…Smaller sizes would be nice. ~ $.40 / gal
Thanks for the info! I wondered the same.
My spinosad powder is over ten years old and I think its still potent, or at least something is doing in the moths. I probably have a lifetime supply, but it cost a lot. When I bought it there were no home orchard packagings.
I should have specified that I bought the liquid, not the powder, which I didn’t even know was available! I would expect that a dry powder would last better, especially if tightly sealed.
Does anyone know what the shelf life is of UNOPENED and SEALED spinosad? My local greenhouse found some 7yo bottles of it in storage (from before he bought the place) and he’s selling them for only $2 each (these are the $16 bottles)! Just don’t want to waste my money. They probably weren’t exposed to any high temps, but they probably did get frozen many times over the years since that portion of his building is unheated.
For 2 bucks, I would go for a couple of bottles. If it works, you saved a boat load of money. If it doesn’t work as well as it should…double dose. If it doesn’t work at all, you are only out a small amount.
I’m reviving this old thread because I just bought spinosad (after a lot of research) to eradicate mites on my chickens and in the chicken coop, and I saw that some of these old questions hadn’t been answered.
The spinosad product sold for poultry (Elector PSP) has a much higher concentration of spinosad (44%) than the spinosad garden sprays, which tend to be about 2% active ingredient. An 8 oz. bottle of Elector PSP runs about $140, but would probably end up being more cost effective than the garden spray if you plan to do a lot of spraying with it. The lowest cost seller I have found online is Valley Vet Supply.
It is very shelf stable (at least 5 years) as long as it’s not exposed to sunlight.
Wish me luck that this nukes the chicken mites as advertised. I have tried everything else, and I’m at the end of my rope.
Mites can be tough to get rid of. Are your chickens caged or do they have access to dirt where they are able to make dusting holes?
Yes, they are very tough to get rid of. I have tried DE, permethrin, sulfur, and ivermectin. I think I had both Northern Fowl Mites and Red Mites. The chickens themselves now seem to be free of mites (it’s the Northern Fowl Mites that spend all their time on the bird), so I’m assuming it’s the Red Mites that I am still having a problem with.
The chickens are free range during the day and locked in a coop at night.
Anyway, I just sprayed 2 gallons of Elector PSP solution on the inside and outside of the coop–got all the wood dripping wet and soaked. So hopefully that will take care of them.
The easiest way that I found to control them is to sprinkle poultry powder into their dusting holes periodically. Works best in the dry season. Cheap, easy, and the birds do all of the work. Sounds like you have the mites knocked back pretty well right now. This might be an easy way to keep them knocked back. Best of luck!
Yes, if they were regular chickens with regular feathers that would probably work. But they are Silkies, so basically fluff balls with feathered feet and crests. Lots of cover for mites.
There’s a picture of them in this thread: https://growingfruit.org/t/back-yard-landscaping/27491
The feathers are just too thick for them to dust themselves effectively