Pesticide Application Accessories

Accessories For Use With Pesticides

By the term "pesticide" we include the insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides

Here are some products you may wish to consider when using pesticides described in Yardener’s Tool Shed

Pump Sprayer
Many pesticides come in ready to use (RTU) form and require no extra equipment to apply the product to the problem area. Pesticide products that come in concentrate form will need to be applied using a pump sprayer of some kind. For all the information you need to learn about sprayers go to Hand Tools For Spraying in Yardener's Tool Shed.

Spreader-Sticker
Professional pesticide applicators often use a “spreader-sticker” with some pesticides. Also referred to as a “surfactant” or "wetting agent", the spreader-sticker helps the pesticide stick or adhere to the foliage of the plant being sprayed. It essentially breaks down the waxy coating of leaves on tough to wet plants. [here it gets a bit complicated for this yardener] The non-ionic action has a positive attracting negative attraction which provides better coverage without excessive runoff and helps pesticides and herbicides penetrate better.

With insecticides, this benfit might not be needed if all you are doing is applying an insecticide that kills the bad bug on contact. However, if you are using an insecticide the kills the bad guys both by direct contact, but also by residual action killing other bad bugs coming on to the foliage later. Here we want to be sure the insecticide sticks well to that foliage so the residual function is carried out.

With herbicides and fungicides, their effectiveness depends on their covering the all the foliage, pentetrating the foliage, and staying around long enough to do their job.

Spray Tank Cleaner
When you use a pump sprayer to apply an pesticide, you should clean out the pump sprayer once you are finished, assuming you will use the sprayer for another pesticide some time in the future. Problems can occur when you use your sprayer to apply an herbicide to kill some weeds, and then switch and use the same sprayer to apply an insecticide. No matter how careful you are in cleaning the sprayer of any residual herbicide, there is always the chance of a small amount of that material being left in the sprayer. Then when you apply the insecticide on your flowers, you may be also applying a weed killer, and even in minute amounts it might damage your valued flowers.

To avoid this kind of a problem, it is wise to use a tank cleaner product whenever you are switching from one pesticide to another. It takes a few minutes, but such an step helps avoid small disasters.

A PESTICIDE DUST APPLICATOR IS HANDY

This tool allows you to spread insecticidal dust evenly over a plant.