Trouble is, these "newer" products aren't sold, as far as I know, in Denmark. My daughter who frequents plant schools has never heard of diatomous earth for instance.
Carol
Carol
Diatomaceous earth is certainly both registered as a pesticide in Denmark
and available through one or two specialist dealers. It isn't as popular in
Europe as it is in the US because the problems of its use were more widely
recognised before it was introduced here - it is horribly dangerous to use
if you don't wear a mask - users please note. It can do very nasty things
to lungs and stomach linings. It too has a very wide spectrum of action.
And pyrethrins are no longer generally approved for use in organic farming.
Some are already banned under the EU organic regulations and the others
have all been moved to the restricted category which means that a grower
has to get specific approval to use them on a case by case basis from their
certification body. They are still available for general gardeners but
certainly not seen as an organic mainstay. Here and in England you won't
find them in the organic section at garden centers any more. Its hard to
keep up with what is approved or not approved as organic any more. When I
started gardening nicotine was an "organic" pesticide of choice!
kathryn
Setzler wrote:
Carol, While growers may still be prepared to use pyrethrum in Denmark,
is no longer regarded as a safe insecticide by most organic
practitioners elsewhere. On the other hand Bt in its various strains
remains an approved biologic control because it is so specific in its
action (killing only immature stages of certain pests, a differet strin
for each). Pyrethrum on the other hand, while it is relatively benign
to mammals (us included) it is very dangerous to insects because of its
wide-spectrum action. It can kill as many good insects (adults and youg
alike) as it does pest species - bees for instance. Though it is still
used occasionally with great care in organic contexts, wherever possible
a substitute with safer characteristics is now recommended.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
Kathryn Marsh wrote:
When I
> started gardening nicotine was an "organic" pesticide of choice!
kathryn
It was certainly the insecticide of general choice here to in our early
days not just for the organic lobby. it was sold under the name of
"Black Leaf 40" and had an impressive warning skull and crossbones on
the bottle. it would appear from this the authorities were already
feeling a bit ambivalent about letting the general public lose on it,
though I never heard of any fatalities from using it carelessly. The one
death I do remember directly from an insecticide here was actually due
to one of the early organo-phosphates (can't now remember which) and was
really sad, A teenage boy thought to please his mother by spraying the
roses for her while she was out and obvously managed to get a lethal
dose into him. It was some years though before these very dangerous
chemicals were mostly withdrawn from the home market, though sadly for
the environment some are still available to the professionals.
As to the nicotine, I suspect many older gardeners may have gone on
using hoarded stocks and when it finally ran out there was a letter to
an advisory page I was running at the time from a man seeking
information about how to make his own brew from cigarette butts. It
seems a great many people nourish a death wish if not protected from
themeselves. A similar problem of hoarding and using old stocks arose
locally with both lead arsenate and DDT when they were first withdrawn
from sale. In hindsight though, one wonders were most of the substitutes
much more environmentally safe?
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
> When I
> started gardening nicotine was an "organic" pesticide of choice!
"Paris Green" was a pesticide widely used years ago. Arsenic as I recall. I
too remember the Black Leaf 40 stuff as well as DDT. I can also recall when
the researchers from Michigan State asked Mom for permission to put a
Japanese Beetle trap near the rose bushes, up to that time we did not have
any and afterwards we had a constant battle with them resorting to using DDT
until little brother drank some, we think. At any rate he went to the
hospital and had his stomach pumped and the parents got rid of all that
stuff.
Kimm
Hi Kimm,
You are correct Paris Green, according to TOXNET at the National Library
of Medicine, was made by ''reacting sodium arsenite with copper sulfate
and acetic acid....Paris Green is an inorganic trivalent arsenic
compound which also contains copper. It is an emerald green colored,
crystalline powder.''
Amongst its many former uses were: as an insecticide; wood preservative;
as /paint/ pigment, particularly for ships and submarines; Stomach
poison for chewing insects; fungicide; mosquito larvicide; slug bait.
It was also formerly used as pigment... for coloring wallpapers,
artificial flowers, etc. and used in calico printing. No longer used as
a pigment because of its high toxicity. Nor is it registered for
current use in the U.S. as a pesticide, but approved pesticide uses may
change periodically and so federal, state and local authorities must be
consulted for currently approved uses, according to the US EPA, as of
May 24, 2001
For the symptoms, use ''Paris Green'' as your search word and open the
HSDB at: http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov Then, go to Emergency Medical
Treatment.
Arsenic, copper, and many current forms of acetic acid are natural.
And, this is an appropriate case, that even some natural products should
not be used because they are extremely toxic. I realize you are not
using them. Thankfully. Yet, this is an example of something that was
once considered safe when it was on the market, and is no longer.
Bunny
Kimm wrote:
<<"Paris Green" was a pesticide widely used years ago. Arsenic as I
recall.>>
