Acephate 97UP 1lb bag Generic Orthene Insect & Fire Ant Killer

Spraying plants in difficult in an apartment and I have some vines which cannot be sprayed. After a couple months of spraying neem oil, and the infestation returning twice, I tried acephate. Other systemic pesticides are not sold where I live and cannot be ordered.Pros: Two applications of ~4 g/gal spaced two weeks apart cleared up the spidermite infestation. I was also spraying most plants with neem/horticultural oil at the same time to keep the population as low as possible.Cons: The granules smell like bad cabbage and it is very strong (I keep the package stored in an airtight box) when handling it. When dissolved, the smell is basically gone. Only one plant (morning glory) out of ~20 species displayed some toxicity. Black spots began to appear on some of the leaves which I thought was a fungal infection at first. Damaged leaves eventually died or were picked off with no lasting side effects.

I bought this to use on indoor orchids that had issues with scale insect. The instructions on the package do include directions for orchids and scale insects, no guessing needed. After 2 treatments, scale insects seem to be entirely eradicated several months later, I'm very pleased.The smell:When the box arrived I had it unopened, sitting in the kitchen. A while later I thought maybe the trash needed to go out because there was a vague, unpleasant smell in the kitchen. Later in the day when I opened the box, I realized the smell was coming from the sealed pouch in the box...it's definitely pungent. I put the still sealed pouch outdoors, and I could still smell it when I was 30 feet downwind.The smell is like kimchi(which I enjoy) that has taken a turn for the worse.I ended up re-packaging this product in a glass mason jar. Probably not the best container in the world because it could shatter, but it keeps the smell inside.Once the product is diluted in water, the solution doesn't have a very strong smell. After soaking the orchids in the solution and bringing them back inside, there's a faint odor after watering, but it's not too noticeable or objectionable.

This review is for Acephate 97UP 1lb bag Generic Orthene Insect & Fire Ant Killer.Don't open it in the house! Don't ask me how I know.It stinks beyond belief but a spoonful on a nest of fire ants (I like to "open them up" with the toe of my shoe first) yields no movement at the nest the next day.Good stuff, I count on it.This is a pelletized type, not a powder. I've used the powder from another vendor and it did the job too.

The smell is indescribable, but it works great. I either mix some of this in water and use it in a sprayer, or put it on the ant hills dry, depending on the size of the hill and the time of year. I'm not sure of the exact ratio of water to product that is recommended by the manufacturer because the type is so small that I can't read it, and the instructions are just too confusing to spend much time reading. But hey, we just want to kill some ants. What I do is mix about 1/2 cup product per gallon of water. That may or may not work for you. Just experiment and find what works for your situation. Whether I use it wet or dry, I always poke a long stick down in the ant hill so the poison will get well down inside the colony. I toss or spray a little extra around on the ground all around the hill. It does kill a lot of other insects as well, but it's too expensive to use as a general pest control product. I reserve this stuff only for fire ants. Which I have a lot of out here.DO NOT put this stuff out next to or too near your house or it will run you out of the place, and when it rains, it just makes it worse. Plus, the smell lasts for weeks. SO, be warned. Within a day or two, the hills will be dead.

I haven't found anything as effective at killing fire ants than acephate. This product has a higher percentage of the active ingredient than other brands, and it's coarser, so the dust doesn't coat you if thee's little breeze when applied. The fine powder I was getting locally worked well, but was only 75% acephate, and the powder was so fie it created a cloud of pungent dust. This product sprinkles on with less floating dust, so I don't walk away coated in the stinky pesticide, and it's also wettable, so you can mix it with water and spray it on or use as a drench. Generally, if applied in the morning, you'll find the pile is dead the following day. This is a very strong pesticide, and it doesn't take much to treat a hill of ants. Used according to the directions, it works wonders on fire ants. We don't use it anywhere we grow produce, but sometimes it's necessary to use serious products, rather than relying on "organic' products that work poorly on fire ants.

Good stuff!I had grasshoppers so bad I didn't even attempt a garden this year after the grasshoppers totally eating the last one. I planted hundreds of dollars worth of shrubs around the house only to see them eaten. The grasshoppers were so bad that in the spring the lawn looked like it was moving when I mowed. I tried Nolo bait with no luck (to expensive for the large area I had anyway). I followed the directions and sprayed the lawn using a 30gal pull behind sprayer. I let it totally dry (per instructions) before letting our small dog back out on the grass.I couldn't believe the results. The next day I walked across the yard and saw only three grasshoppers. The second day...none!It's been about a month now since I sprayed and I still only see an occasional grasshopper. I live on approximately twenty acres but I only sprayed the yard and about ten feet around it. The grasshoppers are still thick in the field around the house but they won't come in the yard.I wouldn't spray anything I was going to eat with Acephate but next year I'll spray around the outside of the garden. I expect good results after what I've seen so far.