Pesticide

[ljmcawesome]

Does anyone know if pesticide on a plant wheres off and how long it might take? I bought an Orchid recently and it is pesticided, and my mantises like to play on my plants, so I don't know whether I should just throw it away to be safe, or if after a while the pesticide affects will just wear off and be safe for the mantises.

Thanks!

 

[Sticky]

Excellant question. Id like to know too. I get my plants at homedepot and have had no trouble. Same from the local grocery store. Why not get another and wait til your plant grows a new spike? That should be clean.

 

[zGhost]

This would be a difficult question to answer without knowing the exact pesticide that was used. Even if you knew that information, I would air on the side of caution.

Technically, a pesticide starts to breakdown the moment it is used and will be ineffective at some point in time, but at what point I can't say. And to what degree will trace residue have a negative effect on your mantis?

I would wait a Month before letting your mantids climb on it. <- that is personal opinion and you need to decide what is right for you and your pets.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I would thouroughly rinse off the plant with water. If you didn't replant it yourself, I would dig up the top most layer of soil and add back a soil you know is pesticide free. Then I would give it a couple weeks for any residual pesticide to age out and air on the side of cauction. Many people have used store bought plants straight out of the shops without a problem, but every once and a while there is a fresh enough pesticide sprayed plant that it results in someone loosing their mantids because of it. For this reason I rather be safe than sorry.

 

[ljmcawesome]

Thank you all so much for your advice! I actually bought the plant form King Super's because they have such beautiful plants, I got a mini orchid specifically. But they also heavily pesticide them. I'll wait a while just to be safe and rinse it off too.

Thanks!

 

[Aryia]

I did some research on this a while ago. Most pesticide wears off after 2 weeks. You can always ask the nursery where you're buying the plant from when it last has been sprayed. A good nursery will be able to tell you when they last sprayed and what they sprayed with.

Also, I tested my plants with crickets. Put a couple crickets in and see if you can keep them alive.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Always be careful with plants you purchase. Even if the retailer doesn't spray insecticides, you can't guarantee that the growers don't.

I recently purchased some Ceanothus from home depot to rear some Hyalophora euryalus and found the caterpillars dropping dead within hours of just touching the plant--they hadn't even started eating. This was a plant I'd sprayed down thoroughly with water and had been growing for a couple weeks already, so whatever they had used to spray must've been a pretty potent and long-lasting contact insecticide. Luckily I had only put a few caterpillars on it and the rest are doing fine on leaves from my plum and Ceanothus from a nearby parking lot.

 

[ljmcawesome]

Thank you all so much for your help with this!! I'll probably test it out with Crickets before I let my mantises close to it. You are all very helpful!

 

[hibiscusmile]

yes, yes a wonderful wealth of knowledge here! :tt2: