From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Eugene,OR

I sprayed Merit last week and now I am finding dead bees in my male blossoms. Does anyone know if Merit will kill bees?

6/26/2006 12:38:20 PM

Mocksville, NC

Merit stops at the flower ,i have been told , but it is a contact killer for a short time did ya spray the bees? Id like to know too i will be getting my Resticted lic next week for pesticides

6/26/2006 2:31:39 PM

Okla

what time of the day did you spray?

6/26/2006 7:18:38 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Spraying Merit so that it lands on open flowers will kill bees. Merit applied as a soil systemic does not migrate to flowers & thus does not kill bees.

We should never spray any insecticide when plants are in flower for this reason. If we must time insecticides this way, it is best to cut off the un-needed males before spraying.

Actually, it is best to remove all un-needed growth to focus the plants energy where we need it most.

6/26/2006 8:07:10 PM

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

Well I have a "normal" garden in close proximity where zuchini, crookneck, beans, carots, etc. are all growing and I say a cuke beetle on my gourds and now....

So I was going to spray benfenthrin and then read this post. I have lots of flowers on my cukes, squash, etc. and don't want to kill all the bees. (Only have a couple of handfulls as it is) so am I stuck keeping the beetles if I don't want to kill off the bees? I can't possibly pick all the blooms off the other vegetables. Probably could take the big ones off the squash and pumpkins. Pumpkins had Merit a while back and don't show any signs of bugs but don't want to take a chance of disease transfer as I understand one chomp is all it takes.

Suggestions?

7/2/2006 6:28:28 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

The normal protocol for commercial applicators is to spary in the late afternoon or early evening after the bees are back in the hive & the current days flowers have already been foraged for pollen. The next mornings flowers will not have insecticide inside them & the bees won't spend any time in the old flowers. This technique insures the lowest bee mortality & also keeps us from burning plants. Win win.

7/2/2006 11:36:08 PM

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

great!

7/3/2006 2:22:06 AM