be carefull with rosemary oil it WILL burn your plants

Jim
Madco Pest-a-Side
"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
news

Thank you for your report.


On 25 Dec 2002 13:11:45 -0700, (Aaron Hicks) (Aaron
Hicks) wrote in Message ID :

ANOTHER interesting pesticide I have discovered is Mycotech's
BotaniGard. The product is a biological pesticide, consisting of
Beauveria
bassiana strain GHA- a fungus. It is mixed with water, and sprayed on the
plants. I have been using it to control greenhouse whitefly which, as
anybody who works with Solanaceae can attest, is truly one of the most
miserable of pests. With a 42-day life cycle, getting them all is next to
impossible.

However, the BotaniGard can be applied any time of day, and has a
good residual activity. Contact is essential; the bugs must come into
contact with the spores you have sprayed on the plants. Once infected,
the
bugs take 3-7 days to die. It takes 7-10 days to see appreciable
reduction
in the number of pests. It has been shown to be effective against
whitefly, aphids, thrips, psyllids, weevils, and mealybugs. Since scale
is
related to mealybug, I suspect this product is effective against scale,
but it is NOT labeled for it. It IS listed for use with orchids. The
application rate is 1/2 to 2 pounds per 5,000 to 20,000 square feet (!).
See also:

http://www.mycotech.com/horticulture...2wplabel.shtml

It's a little pricey. I buy it from a hydroponics store locally
for $8 per ounce; an ounce makes 1-2 gallons (it's supposed to be 1
gallon, but stretching it isn't a problem- you can't form resistance to
fungi quite the same way as chemical pesticides). Probably much cheaper
when you buy it by the pound.

Cheers,

-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ



Have you looked at Hexcide (active ingredient: Rosemary oil):
http://www.biconet.com/botanicals/hexacide.html

It seems to be effective on a wider range of insects.