FollowingYates Confidor withdrawal from the home garden market, gardeners reverted to using mineral oil sprays for the difficult scale, mealy bug, thrip and white fly species on ornamentals.
Effective results from oil sprays required excellent total coverage including stems. While the easier to kill species of sucking insects are controlled, the more difficult ones such as mealy bug and scale survive. Gardeners requiring more effective control of these difficult insect pests will welcome the new Grosafe GroVentive® systemic insecticide.
This new highly systemic insecticide is more effective than Confidor but at the same time is of low toxicity, safe for most beneficial insects.
In contrast to a contact insecticide that has to physically touch the insect, systemic insecticides are absorbed through the leaf and into the sap of the plant. Once in the sap, the insecticide travels around the plant to give complete coverage. When the insect sucks the sap or chews part of the plant, the insect receives a does of the insecticide. It is a highly efficient way of insect control, requiring less insecticide applied at one time and fewer applications.
GroVentive Garden is more expensive than oil sprays, but it is more effective, requiring only one application (occasionally two) to clean up serious infestations. Easily the most effective home garden product for mealy bug and scale.
Grosafe GroVentive® provides excellent control of sucking insects— aphids, white fly, mites, thrips and especially the difficult to control scale, mealy bug, psyllids, spittle bugs and leaf curling midge. Registered and approved in New Zealand for use on roses and ornamentals.
A word of caution - Groventive Garden is not safe for bees and should not be applied to plants in flower.
Available from most garden centres and some Mitre 10 Mega stores.
For a full details on pest and disease control including comparative pesticide spray charts, become a Garden Advice subscriber (coming soon). Or click here to buy Bill Brett’s book, Garden Pest, and Disease Control – Essential NZ Guide.
