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emorems0

anyone here familiar with cedarcide?

emorems0
10 years ago

I've used cedarcide for my house in years past, it's a natural insecticide and deterrent consisting primarily of natural cedar oil. Great for ticks, fleas, termites, mosquitoes and lots of other insects. I checked with the compay to see whether it would be effective on stink bugs since I know they are scent-driven and they said yes. I'm planning on getting the Best Yet for inside my house and for my dog, and also their outdoor stuff (PCO Choice) for the outside of my house, especially the south side where the stink bugs swarm and find entry.

Since I'll already have it, I'm looking into the possibility of spraying my three pear trees after petal fall with the PCO Choice to keep the stink bugs from ruining the baby pears like they did last year. I know it's not a typical use for it, but it is supposed to be harmless to humans and pets, doesn't affect water quality, and doesn't impact sight-driven insects like bees and other pollinators. Seems like it would be a great application for it. It is composed of 85% fractionated red Texas cedar oil and 15% ethyl lactate. Can the more experienced fruit growers here find any reason that it would be a bad idea?

Here's a link to the PCO Choice on the cedarcide website: http://www.cedarcide.com/product/pco-choice/

Comments (2)

  • copingwithclay
    10 years ago

    Ben Oldag, a retired ag extension agent, was a long-time Am radio garden question answerer for many years, and he helped listeners like me a lot. He went to work for Cedarcide after being sponsored by them for a long time.I trusted their products both because of Ben's many words about their products, as well as some personal use. However, the dog/animal bug(flea) deterrent sprayed directly on a large, healthy dog caused him to eventually have a negative reaction. With the emulsifier making the product water soluble, any outdoor spray residue will just wash away during rain. The sweet aroma will too soon dissipate even when dry. The cedar may not be the silver bullet that effectively stops the vampire-like stinkers from enjoying your fruit. On the other hand, when strolling around checking your fruit, a handy bottle of blue ammonia glass cleaner will quickly destroy a herd of orange-colored juvenile leaf footed hoppers sitting together on a fruit. You can spray water after a minute if you want to rinse off the stinky blue poison. The mature l.f. hoppers take longer than 10 seconds to kill like the babies...more like a minute.

  • emorems0
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Despite the outdoor stuff being water soluble, I would expect it to stick around longer based on my own (admittedly limited) experience with it... We used it on my mom's backyard one summer to deal with a flea problem and a bonus effect was that they didn't find a single tick on themselves or their animals for the next two summers (could have been coincidence, but it is normal to pick up at least a tick or two each month in their yard on a normal year). The carpenter ants that were eating their bay window also took a sabbatical for about 2-3 years. Of course, this was years ago... before stink bugs became a problem here so I have no idea how long they would be affected since they are far more mobile than ticks, ants, and fleas and can re-populate an area more quickly.

    Thanks for the advice on the glass cleaner, I'm not usually very attentive to my fruit trees in the spring because I spend most of my outdoor time trying to get the garden planted while chasing my kids around. But I'd really like to get some nice eating pears this year, so I'll have to spend a little extra time back there.