Allotment tales

spinosad

just pinging

Hi melonslayer, where do you buy it?

spinosad

Quoted from this message

"Old Fogey" try doing search since spinosad sold under several names.

Planting garlic bulbs near the plants worked for me and also marigold plants.

pinging for information

I have used moth balls in my greenhouses for the last 3 years and have rarely seen a white or green fly.

hello, i live over in portugal and get white fly on my parsley and strawberries in the middle of june, i used a mixture of fresh chillis and hard soap which we can buy over here easily and water, it seemed to work well along with the marigolds

I did a search, found a company called Fargro and contacted them, this is the reply I got :-

"Conserve is only approved for use in professional horticulture with staff trained in pesticide use. Therefore sales may not be made for
garden or allotment use.
At the moment this is no spinosad containing product available for "home garden" or allotment use in the UK."

I wrote to Defra and got a very thorough reply.

"Thank you for your enquiry regarding the possibility of using pesticide products containing the active substance spinosad in the home garden. Your enquiry has been passed to the Pesticides Safety Directorate to reply.

There are currently two approved products containing spinosad, 'Conserve' (MAPP 12058) and `Tracer' (MAPP 12438). Both are approved for use as horticultural insecticides by professional users only, and are not approved for use in the home garden. It is for companies to decide what products they wish to market and to date we have not received any applications for approval of a home garden product containing this active substance. There is nothing to stop a company making such an application if they have generated, or have access to, the necessary data to satisfy us as to the product's safety and efficacy.

You stated that you believed the use of pyrethrum to be not as safe as the use of spinosad. As mentioned above spinosad products are not approved for use in the home garden as an application for this use has not been made and evaluated. There are currently approvals for pyrethrins (which is the classification for pyrethrum) for use in the home garden. Approvals are only granted if companies can demonstrate that the products are effective, humane and present no unacceptable risks to human beings, animals or the environment

As `Pyrethrins' have been around for some time now this active substance is in the process of being reviewed in the EC wide routine review programme of older active substances. This programme ensures that the data package underlying these approvals meets all modern safety standards. At the time of writing approvals for products containing 'Pyrethrins' continue as a decision has yet to be taken in the EC process. Once the routine review process is complete a decision will be made which will lead either to re-registration of the existing products or their withdrawal from the market. But I should emphasise that were we to have any concerns over the safety of any product we would not hesitate to take the necessary regulatory action. We have no such concerns over 'Pyrethrins'.

I hope that this clarifies the position with regard to spinosad and pyrethrins. If you have any further questions or would like the contact details for the approval holder of spinosad products please do not hesitate to contact me."