Can I use BATS on everything?

I made a 4 gallons with 2tsp BATS in it. I watered my Gessies and houseplants with it last week just in case , and I have 2 gallons left over. I need to water again, should I do it again or will it be to much?

Thank you in advance,

Sandi

I'm curious...what is BATS?

Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub. It is supposed to work on mealy bugs, so we don't get them, other buggies too. I saw it on the Hoya forum and I hope it can be used on everything.

Sandi

princess_1 - my opinion on the indescriminate use of pesticides as a preventative is... why? Kind of like if we took antibiotics every day to prevent an unknown infection we may never get. Seems more harmful in every conceivable way.

Hi princess, I'm not really sure if you should use it twice on the same plants or not. Perhaps you could pose that question in the Hoya forum, as I know a lot of them over there use it religiously. People do use it successfully on Gesneriads, particularly AVs, so I wouldn't worry too much about one treatment causing a problem, but you should find out a bit more before you use it again so soon. Wish I could be of more help.

Snowrose, I see your point, and it makes a lot of sense! I don't use it on my houseplants, but I'm going to have to do something for my Hoyas outside. They're covered in mealy bugs and the alcohol treatment isn't working effectively enough to get rid of the entire population. They have to be completely gone before those Hoyas have to come in when the weather turns cold. Just out of curiousity, what do you use when you find you have a pest problem?

I'm pretty new to the gardening world, so I'm not completely comfortable offering advice. However, I just recently had a terrible mealy bug infestation in my container plants in the front yard. I have a liver condition so I don't like to use strong chemicals. I looked it up and tried a combination of NEEM and alcohol solution. I've had to reapply every week or so, but it's done a great job of keeping the mealy bugs away. Not sure if I just got lucky, but it's really worked for me.
~Melissa

Here's my experience....I wouldn't use it more than every 3 months on small potted plants like AV's & other gessies, especially if you are using other fertilizers too...on other large root based plants you could use it every month. I over used both fertilizer & BATs and burned a couple of AV's who are now recovering by throwing off a burned leaf or two...UHG ..somedays I just don't pay attention.:o)

MsC

Thanks everyone for your imput. I think what I will do is use the bats mostly on my hoya's and keep a close watch on the other gessie's and use the Qtip and alcohol method on those.

Sandi

Raingazer - To answer your question, I don't use pesticides inside or outdoors ever. Years ago, I tried growing hybrid tea roses in my area and realized the only way to battle bugs and fungal disease would be to spray. So, the short of it...I didn't continue to grow roses as I refuse to use pesticides. I have one Knock Out rose that thrives without any chemicals.

There were a bunch of ants, I mean thousands crawling out of a crack between my driveway and the garage earlier this summer. I went in the house and grabbed a spray bottle with household cleaner I mix up and sprayed them and they all keeled over right away. No more ants and no harm to me or the environment.

I have only one hoya plant and so far it has remained free of mealies. Occasionaly I spray it good with soapy water to clean the plant and use a forceful rinse. Even a tad of ammonia in the soapy water is good.

I make up ammonia and detergent (1 cup of each) in my hose end sprayer and bathe everything in sight outdoors. Makes everything so clean and fresh.

One of the maple trees outdoors had ants crawling up and down, I used the hose end sprayer with the ammonia/ lemon detergent mixture and sprayed the tree trunk thoroughly and the ground beneath. That fixed the ants but good. Causes no harm to plants. Actually the soap is good for the ground as it acts as a surfactant and the ammonia (nitrogen) greens things up.

I try to be as organic as possible including what I eat and avoid imported produce.

Sorry to be so long winded but for me pesticides are a big issue and the knowledgeable use of them or especially the non-use of them. Thankfully, I have never had to use any pesticides on my gesneriads. I am extremely careful and anything new gets inspected and isolated. If anything is seen or looks the slightest bit funny or suspicious, it gets pitched right away. Usually if I get a new gesneriad plant with soil, I take cuttings, clean them well and plant in my own soil tossing the the original pot, roots and soil. So much more to say here but that old adage..."an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is so true. Fortunately, knock on wood, so far so good.


If anyone does plan to use BATS (imidacloprid) here are a few good articles. I think some of the well known flea collars for pets are impregnated with this chemical neuro-toxin also.

http://botanicaldog.blogspot.com/2005/09/hazards-of-common-flea-insectides.html

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/pesticides/factsheets/Imidacloprid.pdf

I use Bayer outside on the plants when I need to.....................but I have never even thought of using it on inside plants..................it does work well outside...................

I really do think that everyone knows the less chemicals we use the better off the world is but I grew up as a farm girl and we would never even have a crop with chemicals. Even the grocery stores who claim they have organic fruits and vegetable aren't telling the truth........honest engine................that is for another day (meaning these high end grocery stores who make you believe they haven't used anything bad on food)

I do understand, gessiegail. Everything is a balance and a trade off one way or the other.

A lot of marketing goes into the promotion of pesticides and my only point being not to take any of this stuff lightly and be seriously aware of the risks, hazards and ramifications of their use.

My beef is just that I don't think it is right or fair for these 'whole food' markets to charge so much when I know for a fact that the producers and growers don't have to give up many pesticides to be able to qualify as organic.............we don't use them in our own home veggie gardens and they shouldn't be able to call them chemical free when they are not.

And here I thought 'organic' meant just that...organic....chemical and pesticide free...natural. I wonder now what the standards are to qualify as organically grown?

Snow, i will look it up for you.............that has been a big scandal in Texas because people buying them didn't understand what was really going on...................give me some time to find how what happened with all the details.................the standards for calling it organic are very low indeed.

I'm watching this thread with interest Gail. I have a liver disease and try to buy only organic. Scary to think that what I'm buying may not be.

Drinnian, grow your own and put them in the deep freeze for the year..............we do that anyway out of our own garden.................real easy to do................and then you know what you are getting..............didn't mean to scare you..........

Oh gosh Gail, don't feel bad! It's good to know these things. I'll be growing my own next year. We didn't really have time to start the garden this year.....moved into the house too late in the season. Next year I'll be cooking with all of my own vegetables. Or at least, that's the hope. :o) {fingers crossed} We'll see how good a gardener I end up being. LOL

remember you will be better off if you don't plant too much of everything...........for only two people you can take it as it comes and..................blanch it......bring to a boil only and zap it in a zip lock bag and into the freezer............even better if you have a seal a meal or vacumn packed seal a meal.....................

Something I remembered the other day walking through a pet dept. and wanted to share with you. I recall years ago having a hoya that I believe had mealies when I purchased it. I noticed them almost immediately after I took it home. I mixed up some Hartz flea and tick shampoo for dogs and doused it good as well as pouring solution through the soil till it dripped out profusely. I basically bathed the plant in it so it would saturate every nook and cranny. Soaked the stems. If I remember correctly I mixed the solution about 1 teaspoon per cup of water. You do the math but a Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons. So, about 5-6 Tablespoons per gallon of water should do it. I wore those long Rubbermaid gloves to keep my hands out of it. I didn't rinse. Just let it dry as is.

I think this would be good for fungus knats also as a soil drench.

That it an AWESOME idea Snowrose! Thanks for the tip! I am definitely keeping that in mind come fall when I have to bring in so many plants. I am pretty lucky when it comes to pesky bugs... never had any trouble... but I did have alot of fungus gnats last winter. Entertained my cats greatly, but I found them to be annoying!

Thanks again...

Karen

I think I will do the same this year before bringing in my plants summering outdoors. Has a clean pleasant fragrance. I noticed it is offered in a new orange citrus as well as the standard green shampoo.

snow, I forgot to tell you that when i brought in hoyas from the front porch this morning, I now have 2 frogs loose somewhere in the house and I am scared to hurt them if I pick them up...........

What are you going to do with the frogs? Can you catch them and put them back outside? Can you cover them with a clear container and then slide something like a 3x5 card or greeting card, whatever, under them and carry that way? I love frogs.