Reduced Risk Pesticide Options for Homeowners

We all get the various questions—"what product do you recommend for killing aphids on my trees?" or "is it OK to go ahead and use the DDT that’s in my garage?" OK—maybe not that second question, but our goal as Extension educators is to advise the public on the options available to them for various problems. With homeowner pesticide use soaring above 100 million pounds/year, many people are looking for alternatives to the conventional, broad-spectrum chemicals. As part of a successful IPM program, homeowners now have more and more options for reduced-risk pesticides. We’ve compiled a list on page 4 as a reference.

There are also two handy Web sites devoted to home pesticide products: http://www.homeusepesticide.org/, and http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/.

The most important information we can give homeowners is to read the product label. Two products may have the same active ingredient, but at different percentages, which would mean different mixing rates. The label also includes information on pesticide safety: proper application and handling techniques, storage, and disposal.

Table of Reduced-Risk Home-Use Landscape Plant Pesticides Available in Utah garden centers, farm stores, and box stores. (Not all-inclusive.)

Those with an asterisk (*) are also used as fungicides.

Class	Active Ingredient	Product Names	Example Target Pests
Neo- nicotiniod	imidacloprid	Bayer Advanced 12-mo. Protect and Feed Bayer Advanced All-in-One Bayer Merit	adelgids, aphids, ash borer, cutworms, lace bug, leafhoppers, scale, thrips, whiteflies
Botanical	pyrethrin	Garden Safe Multi-Purpose Garden Insect Killer Safer Tomato and Vegetable Insect Killer Spectracide Garden Insect Killer Green Light Fruit Tree Spray (with Neem)* Ferti-Lome Red Spider and Mite Spray (GL) Natural Guard Natural Insect Spray	aphids, bean leaf beetle, beetles, cankerworms, fruitworm, leafhoppers, leafminer, tent caterpillar
	neem oil	Green Light Neem* Green Light Rose Defense* Ferti-Lome Triple Action Plus*	anthracnose, aphids, black spot, botrytis, lace bug, loopers, powdery mildew, scale, thrips
	other plant oils	EcoSmart Ecopco ACU (peanut oil; bionet.com) GL Home and Garden Insect Spray (thyme oil) Lily Miller Year-Round Pesticidal Oil (canola oil)	wide variety
	rotenone	Bonide Garden Dust*	anthracnose, aphids, blights, codling moth, lace bug, leafhoppers, leaf spots, mealybugs
	capsaicin	Natural Guard Hot Pepper Wax	aphids, cabbage looper, lace bugs, leafhoppers, scale, spider mites
Biological and More	Bacillus thuringiensis	American Thuricide Ferti-Lome Dipel Dust Green Light Bt Worm Killer Safer Garden Dust	cankerworm, cabbage looper, codling moth, leafrollers, sod webworm, spruce budworm, tussock moth
	spinosad	Ferti-Lome Borer, Bagworm, Leafminer, and Tent Caterpillar Spray Natural Guard Spinosad Green Light Lawn and Garden Spinosad	ants, borers, codling moth, fruit fly, fruit worms, leafminers, leafrollers, sod webworm, spider mites
	soap (potassium salts of fatty acids)	Bonide Insecticidal Soap Safer 3-in-1 Garden Spray Safer Insect Killing Soap	adelgids, aphids, leafhoppers, lace bugs, plant bugs, psyllids, rose slug, sawfly, scale, spider mites, thrips, whiteflies
	petroleum oils	Bonide All Seasons Hort. and Dormant Spray Oil Ortho Volk Spray Oil (petroleum)	adelgids, aphids, scale, insect eggs, leafhopper, plant bugs, spider mites, whiteflies
	diamotaceous earth	Natural Guard Crawling Insect Control	soft-bodied insects such as aphids, slugs, grasshoppers, millipedes and sow bugs
	Bacillus subtillis	Serenade Garden Disease Control*	anthracnose, bacterial and fungal blights, leaf spots, powdery mildew
	sulfur	Ferti-Lome Rose Flower and Vegetable Dust* Hi-Yield Lime Sulfur Spray* Safer Garden Fungicide*	anthracnose, leaf spots, powdery mildew
	salts of phosphoric acid	Agri-Fos Systemic Fungicide (purchase via Internet)*	bacterial blight, downy mildew, fire blight, phytophthora, pythium
IGR	halofenozide	Hi-Yield Kill-A-Grub	larvae of: armyworm, billbugs, cutworm, june beetle, sod webworm

-Marion Murray, IPM Project Leader