Pest control

[420benz]

Will Malathion kill sooty mold and lace bugs? Also if so should I apply it now since a freeze is on the way .
Zoon 8

 

[Chuck]

Sooty mold is the excretion of sap sucking insects. It actually does no harm except to reduce sunlight somewhat and it looks bad. Malathion doesn't do anything to sooty mold. It is an insecticide not a fungicide. Malathion will certainly kill lacebugs but so does spinosad which is harmless to people and pets. Malathion is not. Lace bug eggs overwinter in the soil so it is too late to do much about them now. Malathion is an old time synthetic pesticide. I had no idea it was still on the market.

 

[420benz]

Will this do the job?

 

[Chuck]

Will this do the job?

That is exactly what you want. And come spring prepare a soil drench with it to pour on the soil underneath the plant. That should take care of any lace bug hatchlings.

 

[420benz]

I only got a chance to apply one application then we got a frost and some snow.My question is does frost kill most bugs and funguses? You guys told me how to control this problem on all of my azaleas. How to keep this problem from coming back in the fall.Thanks

 

[Chuck]

I only got a chance to apply one application then we got a frost and some snow.My question is does frost kill most bugs and funguses? You guys told me how to control this problem on all of my azaleas. How to keep this problem from coming back in the fall.Thanks

Cold weather greatly diminishes insects and fungal problems but doesn't completely eradicate it.

 

[420benz]

Cold weather greatly diminishes insects and fungal problems but doesn't completely eradicate it.

So when should i start spraying to keep these problems at bay?

 

[Chuck]

So when should i start spraying to keep these problems at bay?

I would start as soon as I saw something starting. I see no use in spraying when there is nothing to spray for.

 

[420benz]

OK Thanks

 

[DirtMechanic]

So..I am gonna spread out some ideas here..because pest control is like controlling an infection.

Most infective components are in the environment, and BAM you do something that draws their attention.

Sure cold makes it all dormant..but its not dormant in the air is it? Its dormant in the soil.

Why? Why not? Moisture held, temps mitigated, opportunity to travel below the frost line.. its a pathogen paradise.

But if you till in the same things you spray on later in the season...well, somebody in bugland will be sad but not you.

 

[Chuck]

So..I am gonna spread out some ideas here..because pest control is like controlling an infection.

Most infective components are in the environment, and BAM you do something that draws their attention.

Sure cold makes it all dormant..but its not dormant in the air is it? Its dormant in the soil.

Why? Why not? Moisture held, temps mitigated, opportunity to travel below the frost line.. its a pathogen paradise.

But if you till in the same things you spray on later in the season...well, somebody in bugland will be sad but not you.

I am not sure what you are saying. IMO tilling in old sprayed plants will do nothing about insects as the insecticides in use for the garden only have a kill life of about 7 days and then they become inert. In fact tilling in old plants may be harmful if there are eggs present.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Yes you are absolutely correct. I should have said "product sprayed" instead of "things". Especially if you had previously gotten hit with some airborne fungus. Personally I would even say burn or boil the refuse from a garden. Here we have southern root knot nematodes, and the curatives are often intended to be drenched on and tilled in with sprayed follow up across the season. The one I have been using is a thyme oil. I guess neem oil may be used that way also though I have not done it. There are no doubt many others. Because it is semi tropical in summer here we have a great deal of insect and pathogen pressure. A good time to start is in the winter before bud break, with dormant oils and such. It has an impact on the emergence of the waves of crawlies and fungi that are known to come. Squash vine borer can be real fast. Multiple bugs on one plant and it is killed in one day. But it is known they emerge when it hits 80 degrees here. I always have something out to kill them before then.

 

[Chuck]

Yes you are absolutely correct. I should have said "product sprayed" instead of "things". Especially if you had previously gotten hit with some airborne fungus. Personally I would even say burn or boil the refuse from a garden. Here we have southern root knot nematodes, and the curatives are often intended to be drenched on and tilled in with sprayed follow up across the season. The one I have been using is a thyme oil. I guess neem oil may be used that way also though I have not done it. There are no doubt many others. Because it is semi tropical in summer here we have a great deal of insect and pathogen pressure. A good time to start is in the winter before bud break, with dormant oils and such. It has an impact on the emergence of the waves of crawlies and fungi that are known to come. Squash vine borer can be real fast. Multiple bugs on one plant and it is killed in one day.

I guess I am lucky here as root knot nematodes are very rare, in fact in the 20 years I have been here I have never encountered them. But what I do have are a plethora of molds and mildews, so much so that I can rarely use much of anything from the garden in my compost pile. It is all burned. At planting time and as the weather warms I keep a VERY CLOSE EYE out for insects coming up out of the soil. If I see any I will immediately use spinosad as a drench. The soil bacteria that spinosad is made from kills the young insects on contact or as they hatch. Spinosad does best on chewing insects but it also works on freshly hatched and young sucking insects as well. On an average year I have very very few insect problems. I just wished I could do the same to the molds, mildews and early blight as I do to the insects

 

[DirtMechanic]

It is completely untested by me, but I was wondering last year about a silicone base instead of soap or oil base in my spray. Silicone is an element, but it has some unique properties. The abilility to resist heat, water etc all go to resist weathering, which leads to frequency of respraying. I worry about oxygen though. Alternatively and more favorably I thought of parrafin wax or its cousin mineral oil, because oxygen passes through quite well as opposed to silicone layers. But while they are organic, they are petroleum based also. I would love to extend the timeframe a spray hangs around.

I understand some people are growing inside transparent bags, whether tied to the fruit or over smaller plants. Everything is a barrier of some sort. Perhaps this means a greenhouse is in my future?