# Spraying Sevin when necessary



## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

Hi all, I know no one likes to use an insecticide on the garden, However I've found that I wouldn't have certain plants I love without them any more. My zucchini, cucumbers, winter squash, etc. I find it necessary to use Sevin spray at times to thwart infestations. 

However my reason for this thread is to tell how I try to do the least amount of damage to good bugs as possible and ask others for suggestions to help in the future. 

When I find it necessary to spray Sevin I only spray late in the evening right before dark when nearly all the blossoms have closed for the night and I do my best to do a controlled spray to be sure to miss all blossom material where a bee will light. I know it does alot of good because I never find a bee or bumble bee having trouble in my garden. You can watch them the next morning going flower to flower and doing fine. I never find a dead bee in my garden during my inspections, otherwise I would get upset. 

If you know of a decent way to use poison when necessary let me know what to do better, thanks, ray


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Sounds like you are doing fine. FWIW, in south Florida we had some insects that would enter the squash fruit via the flower end. That was one of the discouraging parts of gardening in the tropics.


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

boy I hope those devil bugs don't get to my place, what can a person do? I hope there is a predator bug you can get at a reasonable rate!! or a natural predator there for that insect, for all the good it can do, best wishes, ray


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

You're doing fine. Sometimes, you have to responsibly use pesticides in order to have food from your garden, and that's just the way it is.

IIRC, isn't Sevin on the "acceptable" list for govt organic certification? I could be wrong, but I seem to recall reading that somewhere...


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

what bugs are you spraying for?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Pony said:


> You're doing fine. Sometimes, you have to responsibly use pesticides in order to have food from your garden, and that's just the way it is.
> 
> IIRC, isn't Sevin on the "acceptable" list for govt organic certification? I could be wrong, but I seem to recall reading that somewhere...


Sevin isn't organic but there's a certain rating for each pesticide, organic and non-organic, and Sevin is rated much more safer than a number of approved products. A UW Ext agent who works with state organic certification was a speaker at one of our garden club meetings several years ago. Her topic was pesticide use and how to safely use them. In the end, without expressly saying so, she said that Sevin was the safest and most effective to use even in an organic operation.

Martin


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## Tricky Grama (Oct 7, 2006)

I've read that sevin kills bees. Perhaps they just go back home to die?
Have you ever tried garlic pepper spray? VERY effiective , cheap, safe.

Just a couple habenera (?) peppers (have used 5-6 jalapenas when couldn't get habeneras)
Garlic-maybe a whole one or several cloves
cup of water
Blend (in blender) strain, add more water to make a gallon. A squirt of lemon dish detergent, little orange oil (not much b/c it will hurt plants)


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