Malathion! Why use something toxic
http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/research/ when there's so many safe and effective alternatives!
Respectively disagreeing here.
Malathion is one of the safer pesticides, and it is labeled for use on vegetables. Just be aware of the time until harvest statement which is on the label.
As far as the link that was supplied goes, you can find a "horror site" for just about any pesticide out there on the market. They are actually easier to find then a site which gives the true low down on a given pesticide.
I have been involved with quite a few studies myself dealing with the use of particular pesticides, (mostly organophosphate) and know the true results. I have seen papers and other literature written on some of these pesticides saying the exact opposite of what the true findings were, quoting some "private or school study" that was preformed.
Most of these are very biased in one direction or the other, and I refuse to listen to any of them.
The best sources of information of what the toxicity and any long term effects of a pesticide would be the MSDS or Material Safety Data Sheet, and the label itself. They provide you with a wealth of information.
Neither item promotes the use of the products, they are made to inform you of any hazards or long term ill effects that exposure to products may give.
The Environmental Protection Agency governs the wording on these, NOT the companies who sell the items.
As far as malathion goes, it is one of the most common pesticides on the market, and unless you have been purchasing "organically grown" ( a whole nother pet peeve of mine but we can go there another time) you have already been exposed to it, as it is used by farmers across the nation.
It is a cheap, broad spectrum insecticide that breaks down fairly quickly.
I do not condone the use of pesticides all the time, as there are at times other alternatives.
However for whitefly, there are about a couple of 10000 ole wives tales out there and 99.999% of them do not work. Without the use of pesticides, once a
plant is infested, whitefly can be a difficult problem to control, most of the time you are trying to keep the population down below the level where they are doing major damage, which will be very difficult to say the least.
One non poison control for them would be insecticidal soap, but that can be difficult to use outdoors as it can burn
plants in bright sunlight.
Just my 2 cents on the subject
I hope it helps
Hello Reguy,and welcome.
There is that obnoxious chemical smell, but that went away after a day.