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Message: [QUOTE="DirtMechanic, post: 303772, member: 5568"] Chinch bugs bite so systemics. Imidacloprid — systemic neonicotinoid insecticide. Sold as Merit, Admire Pro, and the BioAdvanced/Bayer "Tree & Shrub Protect & Feed" drench. What it's good at: sap-suckers. Aphids, scale, whiteflies, mealybugs, lace bugs, adelgids, plus borers and Japanese beetle grubs in turf. Applied as a soil drench, the plant pulls it up and stays protected for months — one application a season. What it's bad at: caterpillars, and it can actually flare spider mites by wiping out their predators. The real catch: it's brutal on bees, and because it's systemic it ends up in nectar and pollen. Soil residue can keep showing up in blooms for a year or more after a single drench. So it has no business on anything flowering, anything bees visit, or vegetables and fruit trees. Some states have tightened up on retail sales for exactly this reason. Where it earns its keep is a non-blooming ornamental with a scale or borer problem — a drenched crape myrtle in early spring, say. If it's a vegetable garden or fruit tree pest, insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, or spinosad are the safer pragmatic picks. Credit Claude because it's easy. [/QUOTE]