North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

I would never use malathion for curculio unless I was closely monitoring for the pest and very confident of my timing.  I think I'd rather use even Surround, on the basis of efficacy alone, just because it provides twice the duration of protection although that protection is not complete.  For those unwilling or unable to use phosmet (Imidan), I'd recommend Sevin as would the commercial consultants that I'm aware of.

 

Some states do not allow Avaunt for non--commercial applications but it is very affective against curc.  Unfortunately it doesn't control a slew of other pests that Imidan and Sevin do.

 

The question of the safety of using organophosphates is a little complicated but the government is phasing them out, whatever you want to read into that.  Personally, I don't think that a hobbyist doing very little spraying is at any great risk if they limit their exposure as much as possible.  I don't look forward to a world where I can no longer purchase Imidan for use in my very low-spray program.  It will be very difficult for me to protect the scores of small orchards for which I'm now responsible.