PROVADO - "the ULTIMATE BUG KILLER!"

[tim]

So you rushed out & bought it to deal with your plague of Caterpillars? Because it has a Caterpillar on the front? And the Assistant recommended it?

So did a friend yesterday.  So I told him to read the small print!!

Better that he had used Bug Free - or possibly liquid Derris for small Caterpillars?

[tim]

[OllieC]

Go on, Tim, what's the catch? Active ingredients "may cause vomiting, blindness or death in a small number of cases" or somesuch?

[tim]

No! Can't even kill Caterpillars. But it reduces their feeding damage!! Starves them to death??

And Brassica should only be treated up to the 8 leaf stage.

[Kea]

The assistant was probably some teenager working part time while he does his A-levels. At the weekend my local garden centre is full of them, most of them friends of my son also one of the above.
Actually the adult ones there during the week are much the same, they don't get paid much so they're not going to be experts.

I didn't think that is suitable for things you're going to eat is it?

[tim]

Given the 14 day Harvest Interval - yes!

[tim]

Apologies - I see that some suppliers have already withdrawn Derris from stock.

And remember that Provado should only be used up to the 8 leaf stage.

And, as mentioned elsewhere, bifenthrin is for one application only. Fat lot of good!!

[Kea]

No! Can't even kill Caterpillars. But it reduces their feeding damage!! Starves them to death??

I checked a bottle in a shop today...it's a bit of a puzzle that claim......makes it too tough to get their mandibles into it maybe......or too slippery?! Really strange. Oh an to make you really think it's effective against caterpillars it has a picture of one on the bottle.

[OllieC]

Just flicking through the forums this came up again, and it still makes me chuckle. In what way can they justify it as the "ultimate" anything? A bug killer that only works by boring the enemy into submission is hardly Napalm, is it! Perhaps you could use the tub to squash them?!?!

[moonbells]

It would seem that Provado is indeed an ultimate bug killer.

Please read this before you buy - the active ingredient is imidacloprid which is now thought to be one of the things responsible for the collapse of honeybee numbers globally.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/29/endangeredspecies.wildlife

moonbells

[OllieC]

Great! So it works incredibly slowly on the things you want to kill, essentially boring them to death, but is deadly to the good guys. Coming next - a ceramic toilet for bears...

[valmarg]

Apologies - I see that some suppliers have already withdrawn Derris from stock.

Yep Tim, the good old EU has banned derris for use, even though it has been the organic gardeners' insecticide for more than 100 years (doing no harm to man nor beast, only insects).  The reason, whilst it might be approved in the UK, it has not undergone the rigorous (fantastically expensive) EU tests to prove it's efficacy.

Armillaox is another example.  Whilst it has been tried and tested by UK Universities for use in a number of cases, because it has not been 'tested' by the EU the only claim it can make on the bottle is for cleaning patios and patio furniture.  And it is readily available to purchase in the UK

You go to armillatox.co.uk and you will be told that it can only be used for patio furniture/patio cleaning.  If you go to armillatox.com you will be given the uses and dilution rates for all the other uses.

It does rather make the EU a money-grubbing (there's a novelty) organisation.

valmarg

[grannyjanny]

I think someone mentioned about the bees on here or the BBC site several years ago. It might have been Dee Ashton. Does she not post anymore.
Janet

[Robert_Brenchley]

Provado is a trade name for imidacloprid, which is a prime suspect in a lot of mysterious bee problems. It was banned in France for precisely this reason.

[tonybloke]

Apologies - I see that some suppliers have already withdrawn Derris from stock.

Yep Tim, the good old EU has banned derris for use, even though it has been the organic gardeners' insecticide for more than 100 years (doing no harm to man nor beast, only insects). 

And I bet you didn't know that derris is used as a fish poison! I lost all my sticklebacks @ the lottie 'cos of a 'spray - happy' neighbour!!, any way, I wouldn't want to drink provado or derris, so why put it on your plants? (Nicotine used to be approved for use) ;)

[valmarg]

I think you explain that the loss of your sticklebacks was down to the inappropriate use of derris by a neighbouring plotholder, ie it must have been a windy day, and your sticklebacks suffered from drift.  I accept it was derris that killed them, but they would have been fine, had it not been for your idiot neighbour.

Since my last posting, I have taken the opportunity of looking at the 'Ultimate Bug Killer' in a garden centre.  I think where I have misunderstood is that this product is recommended for edible crops.  There is no way I would use anything like this on anything we eat.  We couldn't be certified organic, but anything we eat is chemical free (other than fertiliser).

The point I was making was that on ornamentals I would have no problem using Provado vine weevil killer.  I grow fuchsias, and the biggest problem with them is vine weevil grubs.  I think the case of the flies in the house/office plants could also be treated with the vine weevil killer.

I am most definitely not an advocate of chemical use on 'edibles'.

With regard to your comment that 'nicotine used to be approved for use'.  Yes it was, and I remember my dad putting piles of nicotine infused shreddings into the greenhouse, setting them alight and shutting up the greenhouse.  Next morning it must have been worse than opening up a pub.  Never having smoked a f*g in his life, he died from lung cancer.  Whether the nicotine was to blame :( we'll never know.

OH bought me the Victorian gardening/cooking series DVDs for Christmas.  Harry Dodson demonstrated the use of nicotine.  I have some of my grandad's gardening books.  Some of the recipes for weedkillers/insecticides would make your toes curl, for instance, killing weeds on the driveway would have used concentrated sulphuric acid. :o :o

We live and learn.  Since the DDT scare we have become a bit wary of what the chemical companies profess to be the latest wonder cure (gardeningwise).

As I said, anything we eat doesn't get sprayed.

We can only do our best at what we think is healthy.

valmarg