Just as a healthy person seldom needs medicines, and gets over minor ailments without drugs, so also most of the healthy plants thrive in home gardens without much use of pesticides. But in severe cases, these become essential. Given a choice, an insecticide with low mammalian toxicity should be preferred to one with higher toxicity.
While using a toxic pesticide, insecticide, fungicide or any other chemical spray on plants, following precautions should be taken:
1.Chemical should be applied on the day there are no high winds. On a rainy day, it may be washed off too quickly.
2. Chemical should be used strictly according to instructions on the product. Less dosage may not be useful; more may be harmful to the plants.
3. A person spraying the pesticides should wear safety gloves, mask, goggles, garden apron, and they should stand according to the wind position to keep the direction of the spray away from the body.
4. Hands must be washed carefully with soap after application. It is better to keep a container, separate from household containers, for mixing the chemicals.
5. Be careful with storage. The chemical should be labelled and kept away from the reach of small children. It should be distinctively marked as poisonous.
6. It is recommended that vegetables should be consumed only after three weeks of spraying. Even in the case of non-toxic pesticides, it would be advisable to allow a gap of at least three days before consumption.
7. Chemicals should be applied in the morning or the late evening; if used during hot hours, it may endanger the foliage. The chemical should not be inhaled at the time of application.
8. The container and the sprayer should be washed with clean water, immediately after use and also before use. In some cases mixing of different pesticides is very dangerous.
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Many chemicals may be applied by dusting of powder rather than spraying. They may even be implemented to the soil before planting, like nematicides for control of nematodes. A good knapsack sprayer is very useful for spraying these medicines.
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Farmers must focus on preventive measures, social control and mechanical control of pests & diseases before considering the use of chemical products. It is recommended for gardeners to use household natural pest control remedies as much as possible. Rather than depending totally on chemical products, a grower must employ integrated farming methods, slowly shifting towards organic gardening techniques.
Read about Household Remedies for Pest Control
Happy Gardening!
