At a resent pest control seminar, as sale rep was telling us that Merit is gaining popularity for controlling ants.  Applied around the perimeter of a residence, it is drawn systemically into the plants and kills all nature of insects that feed on them.  While Merit is not labeled for ants, it is labeled for and effective against aphids, a major food source for Carpenters Ants.  With out this food source the ants allegedly forage farther from the residence.

Of course I have to ask, "What effect would Merit have on the Honey Bees, drawing nectar from these treated plants?"

My question was met by the blank stare of a deer caught in the head lights.  He rattled off the standard canned answers of label restrictions.  He said that it was his belief that Imaidaclopid would be filtered out by the flower and not be present in the nectar.

I am a little bit more than skeptical.  We don't carry Merit as we are not a landscape pest control company.  I looked up the labels and MSDS from Bayer.  The wetable powder does in fact carry the standard warnings, however the granular does not.  Some times the things omitted on the labels or more interesting than what is on it.  It is effective against moths and butterflies,..  Hmm..

So I'll pose my questions to the Ph.d.'s here.  If Imidaclopid is applied pre-bloom, would it be present in the nectar?  If it is present in the nectar, would it not do exactly what it was designed to do, and kill all the brood larva?  Am I wrong in assuming that if Imidaclopid found it's way into capped honey, that it would be long since broken down before harvest?

I live in a residential area where fleets of chemical lawn service trucks pass by each day.  I have watched one company treat my next door neighbors lawn with Tempo WP while the white clover is in bloom.  While I am annoyed by people who don't play by the same rules I do, but I understand the problems.  The applicator is following is supervisors directions.  His equipment does not allow him the opportunity to treat around flowering plants.  His schedule and work load does not afford him the luxury of waiting until the blooms pass.  My issues are as follows. The applicator has never read the labels or has been required to by his employers.  His employers are bending and breaking the rules for faster and cheaper results.  No one is watching and calling on these companies when they do break the rules.  If these products can not be applied as directed by the labels, they should not be on the trucks.

Over applications and misapplications are how we lose the EPA registrations of useful pesticides.  In an effort to protect us from ourselves, most of the truly effective and persistence pesticides are no longer available.  It sounds like a good idea until we get Bed Bugs in our own homes and can't get D.D.T. to get ride of them.  (D.D.T. eradicated Bed Bugs from the U.S. before the registration was pulled. They are coming back and we are left without an effective treatment for them.)

Jim Hock
Wethersfield, CT

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