"Due to the availability of harmful pesticides, more and more gardeners are being turned on to what is basically the right tool for the wrong job." there are a wide variety of tools like neem preparations, pyrethrins, essential oil blends and beneficial insects, the restricted toxics have once again taken centre stage. One commonly recommended poison has made a name for itself as a total and instant kill miticide. The active ingredient Abamectin is the by-product of a fermentation process from the bacterium Streptomyces avermitilis. This toxin’s mode of action is the induction of insect paralysis and subsequent death due to starvation. The product label and MSDS sheets clearly state that it is approved for “ornamental” use only. Unfortunately the majority of growers seeking out conSpidermites trols in retail garden shops are growing food. This simple oversight has led to many being exposed to what even the manufacturer would recommend against. And though extremely effective, this microbiological derivative is often mistaken as a natural control given its relationship with the aforementioned micro-organisms. This unfortunately plays into the misconception that if it’s organically-derived it is somehow less harmful to mammals…wrong. Here’s a list of a few other “organic” organisms you may be familiar with: cholera, anthrax, small pox, malaria, stacchy botris. Any of these ring a bell? Here’s the bottom line: we currently have a silent epidemic amongst the indoor garden industry. Due to the availability of harmful pesticides, more and more gardeners are being turned on to what is basically the right tool for the wrong job. The new pesticide paradigm has the misinformed retailer exposing the less informed gardener and eventually the oblivious end-user to what equates to a slow poisoning and toxification through second hand exposure. This exposure is especially bad when fruits/flowers are ingested, or worse, when applied to plants with naturally occurring essential oils, which tend to encapsulate the poison until volatized into a gaseous form by heat. The reality is that in an industry that services the food movement we’ve turned a blind eye to those who’ve chosen to intoxicate as opposed to educate. It’s clear that in the face of a mite outbreak growers are looking for the absolute answer. In a world where mites are considered the ultimate garden menace, who would you listen to, the person with a multitiered IPM approach or the person with the quick fix? What this has led to is the widespread dissemination of extremely poisonous chemicals. MAXIMUM YIELD Australia - January/February 2010
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