Looks like Rotenone is no longer available for home garden use in the U.S.
Sadly, poisons are poisons. This one can cause Parkinson’s like symptoms when ingested over a period of time. Be sure and wash your hands and be very careful not to breathe that stuff.
“In the United States and in Canada, all uses of rotenone except as a piscicide (fish killer) are being phased out.”
See link.
Thanks for the warnings. Trust me, I don’t usually use such things…this was one exception I was happy to make, for the sake of these “Viru seedlings”.
Last night I was watching a local gardening show on TV, and they were also talking about the “Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT)” product. It is thankfully available locally. Hopefully it might be cheaper than the Spinosad!?
Once again, last night I was watching the regular local gardening show on TV, and they had a question/answer segment…One guy brought in a jar containing some rose leaves in it and a green caterpillar identical to the one I have in the picture above. He said these caterpillar types were “decimating” his roses. The gardening expert could not put a name against the type of caterpillar in question, which is too bad, however he did recommend the spinosad+/-BT treatments, as has been done before.
Meantime, I have been picking leaves off where these critters have made homes for themselves as they mature from larvae into caterpillars at various points all over my Sweet Chariot bush. I am not using any more Rotenone dust, (I only dusted the Viru seedlings once, that will just have to do!!)…I am still on the hunt for affordable BT/spinosad products here. Can any ozzies on this forum advise of local affordable brands of such??
George
Yates “Success” is a spinasad product available here
My local Mitre 10 garden centre stocks it
Russ.
Oh that’s great, thanks Russ. I’ll get it. I tried some agricultural bulk retailer and got a shocking price. Obviously I was looking at the wrong type of shop!
BT kurstaki is not expensive here (<$10). I’ve used it a couple of times for massive tent caterpillar outbreaks. It works well and doesn’t have to come into contact with the caterpillar: if they eat a sprayed leaf, it gets them. It is sold as a liquid and as a dust (Dipel). It doesn’t work immediately, but within 24 hours you should see a large impact.
Thanks for your feedback here, Cass.
Cass, I found the Dipel (liquid) product here also.
Correction… above entry should read…
Cass, I found the Dipel (powdered version) product here also.
Dipel seems to come in some sort of individual sachets where you mix the powder in water, I think. I have not purchased it quite yet.
Sorry, George, I’ve never used the powder. I assume you’ll be using a small amount in a hand sprayer? I wonder how much solution you must mix up for each sachet. This isn’t something you want to spray around the garden. Oh, and you should be forewarned that it smells bad in solution.
Cass…It is something in a sachet…I haven’t purchased it , maybe it is a liquid in a sachet, maybe a powder in a sachet…I don’t actually know…but you then mix the “stuff” in water to get the final liquid product.
However the smell factor you warn about here, is a definite turn off for me. I’ll sooner go for the spinosad (branded apparently as “Success” here for home type gardening use)…the stuff that Russ was talking about further up this thread.
Again, thanks for the information Cass…very timely :0)