Hi all.
My preferred insecticide of choice is malathion.
However, it's annoying to do all the mixing in my big sprayer, then empty it and wash it out thoroughly.
I recently bought this little prayer of Sevin. You just keep it around, and spray when you neeed it. It's a little sprayer, like a windex bottle.
Can't I do this with my malathion? I looked on the bottle it says "Do not store diluted spray". But really, will it actually degrade quickly once mixed? As long as I use an opaque sprayer bottle to keep out the light, it should last, no?
I prefer to use malathion because the sevin the guy told me dries as a solid and that's what kills the bugs - that carbaryl itself is a water-soluble solid that kills by bug contact. My problem with that is that that means that it washes off as soon as rain comes or even I just water my plants. And an organochloride also seems more effective since the slowly-vaporizing material also shoos the bugs away, whereas a contact poison, I feel like the bug will already be munching on the leaf by the time he dies or flies away because of the solid carbaryl. And also obvs the oily malathion should stay on longer even after rain or watering, sinc eit's oil based, even if it's dispersed in water in the bottle with surfactants or whatever they use when they bottle and sell the stuff.
It's only an issue because a few of my seedlings have been getting eaten and they're having trouble getting past very small seedling stage.
My preferred insecticide of choice is malathion.
However, it's annoying to do all the mixing in my big sprayer, then empty it and wash it out thoroughly.
I recently bought this little prayer of Sevin. You just keep it around, and spray when you neeed it. It's a little sprayer, like a windex bottle.
Can't I do this with my malathion? I looked on the bottle it says "Do not store diluted spray". But really, will it actually degrade quickly once mixed? As long as I use an opaque sprayer bottle to keep out the light, it should last, no?
I prefer to use malathion because the sevin the guy told me dries as a solid and that's what kills the bugs - that carbaryl itself is a water-soluble solid that kills by bug contact. My problem with that is that that means that it washes off as soon as rain comes or even I just water my plants. And an organochloride also seems more effective since the slowly-vaporizing material also shoos the bugs away, whereas a contact poison, I feel like the bug will already be munching on the leaf by the time he dies or flies away because of the solid carbaryl. And also obvs the oily malathion should stay on longer even after rain or watering, sinc eit's oil based, even if it's dispersed in water in the bottle with surfactants or whatever they use when they bottle and sell the stuff.
It's only an issue because a few of my seedlings have been getting eaten and they're having trouble getting past very small seedling stage.
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