Help...Least harmful pesticides

[poconofishy]

AAAAARRHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I'm sick of bugs! Ants, gnats and mosquitos Oh My! I need to do something.

I'm doing some research on various pest control options.
I'm not sure if this is something I want to do on my own or hire a professional. Any opinions would be helpful.

Has anyone used a pest control service ie Orkin, Ehrilch, Terminex? Again any opinions good, bad or indifferent woould be helpful.

I was looking into some different pesticides. I've read that diatomaceous earth and boric acid can be useful for certain pests. These seem the least scary. Someone recommended Sevin which seemed pretty good at first until I found this on a website.

According to:

Winand K. Hock
Extension Pesticide Specialist
Penn State University

Toxicology/Toxicity

The toxicology of Sevin carbaryl insecticide has been extensively investigated by many different research groups, including universities, governmental agencies, and private research foundations. Laboratory tests to determine toxicological (tumor producing, birth defects, mutations, etc.) effects have been conducted on at least a dozen species of mammals. In addition, toxicity (how poisonous is the chemical) studies are known for at least 20 species of mammals, 50 species of birds, and 40 species of fish. Even some human exposure studies have been conducted.

We do know that carbaryl is quite toxic to honey bees, certain beneficial insects such as lady beetles, and parasitic wasps and bees, certain species of aquatic insects, and some forms of shellfish such as shrimp and crabs Care must be taken when using carbaryl in areas where these organisms exist.

Extensive evidence indicates that carbaryl does not cause cancer or genetic changes in animals. Carbaryl has also been extensively tested for its effect on reproduction and the occurrence of birth effects (we call this teratogenic potential).

Experiments have been conducted on various strains of rats and mice, and on hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits, dogs, sheep, and monkeys. Adverse effects have occurred only in dogs.

I'm just wondering if anyone has already done any research on what pesticides are the safest to use around reef tanks while still being an effective insecticide.

Thanks,
Michelle

[eastonreef]

i guess it would all depend on what you are looking to kill and how bad the infestation is.
i had ehrlich when i first moved out here. we built a new home and since the neighborhood was still not finished the fields were being disturbed. we wound up with voles in the yard. i had never heard of them b-4 .. also there are more bugs out here in what i consider a more rural area than i was used to.
it is 6 years later and i still have voles ,, and every yard has bugs. i never had any problem inside the home........
i fired them and for a fraction of the price bought enough poison to kill anything moving in the yard. the trick is to just keep up with treatments...... prevention is better than curing.......

[CarlC]

Diatomaceous earth will do wonders on the things that crawl over it. It won't help with the flyers though. Since it is a natural non chemical approach this would be best around the tank. I used it for years around Chameleons and feeder insect containers and never had a problem.

Carl

[coralnut99]

DE is great for ants especially, and as long as you don't inhale a bunch of the dust, it's totally benign. We have real gypsy moth problems again, so I pulled the bug zapper out of the shed. Hadn't used it in years. It only works ta night and on bugs attracted to light. It does a great job on moths and keeps them away from the from the frony door at night. When we put the porch lights on, it's a cloud of bugs and moths. Dryer sheets can do a decent job of keeping them off of you. My son sticks one in his baseball cap when he's on the baseball field.

[ReefNuggets]

In my opinion pesticides and the like should be a last resort when talking population control. A good integrated pest management program will go alot further than your traditional corporate "bug killers" I would give horticultural oil a try. It is nearly impossible to overdose and has almost none of the negative impacts that conventional applications do, and the bugs are unable to build up a resistance to it as they are to most popular pesticides. Knats are easily killed by putting those yellow sticky traps near plants. Eco-friendly greenhouses and growers use them almost exclusively and they work pretty well. As for mosquitos you could try to encourage a local colony of bats as mosquitos are their natural prey, if you don't mind the blood sucking haha...just my $0.02, take it for what its worth.

[eastonreef]

i recently bought a bat house...... i have tons of japanese beetles in the yard.... my roses must taste great------- i just need to hang it.........
syracrazi .. any advice where to hang it... on the instruction sheet it said face it south... on the internet i read to hang it northeast.... both said 12-15 feet high

[JonK]

Lisa,

Bats will eat Japanese Beetles? We have tons of them feeding on raspberry bushes in the garden and besides crushing them I wasn't sure what to do. I hate Japanese Beetles.

[JonK]

Michelle,

I've used a pest control service once when we found a huge nest of carpenter ants behind a bathroom wall. They initially sprayed the entire colony and then after the new wall was installed they placed something in the wall where they could stick a tube and inject the pesticide behind the walls. They had placed a few of them around the house.....mainly in the bathrooms and kitchen. They only used a spray outside of the house. This year at our new place we've been overrun with sugar ants.....we just placed some bait traps around and they've slowly been dwindling in numbers.

Jon

[eastonreef]

jon,
according the the info on the bat house i bought, they feed on insects that fly at night. japanese beetles do fall in that catagory.....i hope i can get some bats to use the house ,, and i hope they feast on those beetles...... i hate them!!

[ReefNuggets]

Specifically natural bat dwellings face southward so they can gauge the intensity and duration of the setting sun...but in the landscape or in "manufactured" homes they will tend to be opportunistic. The best and most hospitible setting will be chosen according to the colony's needs. Just make sure that it is high enough in the tree or on a wall so that domesticated animals cannot get to it. As far as bats eating japanese beetles, they will probably eat them if their natural prey (native flying insects, mosquitoes) are in short supply which will likely happen quickly unless your house is smack dab in the middle of the woods, or in close proximity to a somewhat stagnant lake, pond, or the like.

[CJ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7736935#post7736935 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JonK
Lisa,

Bats will eat Japanese Beetles? We have tons of them feeding on raspberry bushes in the garden and besides crushing them I wasn't sure what to do. I hate Japanese Beetles.

Jon:

A natural pest control we've used is "Milky Spore" It's too late for this year but if you spread it around it will stay in the ground and will give a fungal disease to the grubs and drastically reduce the population next year. You should be able to find it at the local hardware store or do a web search. There also are some traps which use pheronomes to attract them and trap them. The Milky Spore is a more permanent solution though. We just had to redo it last year after 20 plus years of peace. This year is particularly bad even with the treatment. They can fly pretty far and I think they're coming from our neighbors; they do love red raspberries.

Diatomaceous earth works very well on carpenter ants and other crawling insects. The fine silica crystals are very sharp and pierce the exoskeleton of insects unfortunate enough to crawl on them. This causes them to lose body fluids and die. It is harmless but you shouldn't breathe the dust. Some farmers use it to worm their animals. That's how we got our first batch. Now I just use the filter material from the pool, it's the same thing. With carpenter ants though it is best to find the mother colony as every now and them they will establish new colonies. It is quite a sight to see them all move across the yard to their new home. And, they CAN bring a house down.

[eastonreef]

cj,
i just bought some milky spore from the local farm bureau.... it was cheaper that on the internet.... i have read up on the stuff and am very happy to hear it worked for you....cant i put it down anytime of the year? or maby in the fall and then again in the spring?

[CJ]

I don't think it matters when you spread it. It will get washed down into the soil and just stay there ready to infect the larvae. I'm kind of rusty on the life cycle of the jap beetle. I'll see if I can find something tomorrow.

[JonK]

Thanks for the great info CJ. Any of you interested in some currant berry bushes?? We have a huge garden that came with the house we just moved into. I know they are used for making jelly but the wife and I don't really have the time. Otherwise they are just getting cut down this fall.

Jon