Read label before you purchase pesticide
Pesticides include such products as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, bactericides, rodenticides — basically anything labeled to control a pest is a pesticide.
Each category consists of many different active ingredients, concentrations and modes of action, each designed to target specific pests or sometimes a broad range of related pests. Therefore, it is very important to identify the type of pest you want to control, the site in which it is to be used and then select the pesticide best designed to control the target pest.
With all the different products available, consumer labeling can be confusing. For example, Ortho has several products labeled Bug-B-Gon or Weed-B-Gon, but each one may have different chemicals in them, different sites in which they may be used and pests they control.
Another example is RoundUp. Not all RoundUp products contain just glyphosate anymore, which has been the main active ingredient for many years, and still is; instead, some of the products produced by Monsanto have other ingredients, as well. The products are still labeled as RoundUp, but those with added ingredients have an addition to the title, such as “Extended Control, Weed & Grass Killer, Plus Weed Preventer” or “Poison Ivy & Tough Brush Killer Plus.”
To make things even more confusing, this spring RoundUp launched its “RoundUp for Lawns.” Obviously, there is no glyphosate in these products, since glyphosate has been the go-to grass killer for over four decades. I have found several registrations for RoundUp for lawns, and all of them had different combinations of active ingredients. So be wary and READ THE LABEL.
The problem consumers run into is they see “Roundup” on the label, think it is just the traditional weed killer with glyphosate in it, purchase it and apply it to an area that it was not meant to be applied without reading the label!
I know of two cases in which the Roundup Extended Control, Weed & Grass Killer, Plus Weed Preventer was accidentally used instead of the traditional form. Twice this year we have had clientele drop by the office who had questions about their landscape.
One wanted to kill an area in their turf to install a vegetable bed, and the other used it in an area to plant trees and shrubs. The result in both cases was they were unable to plant anything in the area for about four months. The reason was because the second ingredient in this product provides up to four months weed control and can damage unestablished plant material.
The moral of the story: Read the Label BEFORE you purchase any pesticide!
Please realize this is not an attack on Ortho or Monsanto’s RoundUp or any other manufacturer or product; I love and use many of their products! However, it is extremely important for the consumer to do a little research and even read the label before they purchase a pesticide to avoid these kinds of situations.