All chemical plant protection products are called pesticides. This group includes drugs of various actions: Insecticides - drugs for pest control of indoor plants. Insecticides are not effective against disease. Acaricides are means of combating herbivorous ticks. Fungicides are means of fighting fungal infections and fungi. Bactericides are a means of fighting bacterial diseases.
Often, ordinary lovers of indoor plants do not use such accurate systematics and appeal only to two concepts - insecticides (including nematicides and acaricides) and fungicides (including bactericides). This is explained by the fact that most drugs usually have a fairly wide spectrum of action, showing other, less pronounced properties.
Action of insecticides
Insecticides can have different ways of affecting pests:
Contact insecticides - enter the body of the pest through the integument of the body. Treatment with such preparations requires thorough wetting of the surfaces or immersion of the entire aboveground part in the product solution.
Intestinal insecticides - enter the body of the pest when feeding on plant sap. It also requires careful treatment of plants.
Systemic insecticides are able to penetrate deep into the tissues of plants and spread in them. Such preparations are especially effective against pests and larvae living in plant tissues (nematodes, mite larvae, etc.), systemic preparations are used for watering plants, the active substance is absorbed with moisture from the soil.
Insecticides of fumigate action - entering the respiratory organs of pests and through the integument of the body.
There are also mixed-action drugs, for example, intestinal contact.
The strength of the action of various drugs depends not only on the dose or on the shelf life, but also on the drug itself, some of them have a stronger effect, others less. Usually, the stronger the drug, the lower the degree of toxicity. For example, actellic is a very strong drug against pests of indoor plants, even one spraying is enough to heal a very badly damaged plant, while actellic has hazard class II - i.e. dangerous for humans, and you need to work with it very carefully. But when spraying with insecticides that have hazard class IV, more than one treatment may be needed.
In case of mass pest infestation, all touching surfaces (window glass, frames, window sills, tiles, etc.) can be treated if possible. These treated surfaces are then thoroughly washed from the insecticide with running water and soap.
Pesticide form
The form of chemical preparations for the destruction of pests can be different: solution, dry wetting powder, emulsion, spray. The most convenient form for treating indoor plants is solutions in vials or ampoules. Typically, the capacity of ampoules or vials is 2-5 ml, which is usually sufficient for spraying 50-100 plants. Wetting powder and sprays are less preferred. Powders are more difficult to dissolve by eye, some of the drugs are insoluble in water (for example, sulfur), they can remain on the leaves in the form of a dust deposit. Sprays are better at wetting surfaces and secluded places on plants, but due to their finely dispersed form, they easily penetrate the human respiratory tract, causing irritation.
In any case, most of the pesticides (insecticides, acaricides, fungicides) that are prohibited in many European countries for use in residential premises, we Russians, without hesitation, use in their apartments to treat their favorite flowers.
In fact, many drugs are highly toxic and require mandatory safety measures, drugs with hazard classes 2 and 3 are desirable (but who will forbid you!) Not to be used at home. In April 1992, a description of malathion malathion poisoning appeared in the press - the active substance of some insecticides and acaricides, in this case, was used by carbofos. So, a hundred meters from the elementary school, plants were sprayed with a hand sprayer (according to illuminated data, 22 ml of carbofos was used), after a while the students began to have an attack of hysteria, as a result, 296 people were hospitalized, with nervous disorders caused by the smell of malathion (College of Agriculture, University of Arizona, Tucson).
Insecticide and fungicide treatment at home
If you have the opportunity to process your flowers outdoors, outdoors, take advantage of it. In this case, all safety measures boil down to the fact that you need to work with gloves and an apron, do not use utensils, do not drink, do not smoke or eat while working, do not scratch your nose or ear with dirty hands. But if there is no opportunity to take out and spray plants on the street or on an open balcony, many do not see a way out, how to process a plant right in the apartment. In this case, security measures should be much more serious.
First, spray plants in a room where ventilation is better and easier to ventilate. Someone does it in the bathroom, where there is a good hood, someone - in the room where you can open the window.
Two to five plants are easier to process in the bathroom, if there are much more of them, then it is easier to carry out work in the room by spreading a large piece of greenhouse film on the floor. Secondly, before work, put on a work gown, you can use a plastic raincoat (disposable), a shower cap, transparent construction glasses, a respirator and rubber gloves.
After finishing work, hands, face and all used equipment must be washed with soap and water. Insecticides should be stored in a dry room, in a place inaccessible to children and animals, and protected from fire. Storage of the working solution is not allowed!
Many chemicals have a high hazard class and are highly toxic to humans. For example, the popular acaricide Sanmait (the active ingredient pyridaben) has hazard class 2, although there is often a deception of buyers - the label contains hazard class 3, in fact 3 - it is only for bees! For humans, pyridaben is moderately dangerous for oral and dermal toxicity, and dangerous for inhalation. Symptoms of poisoning: depression of the central nervous system, decreased locomotor activity, paralysis, unsteady gait, squishy nasal discharge, increased breathing, ataxia, adynamia, decreased body temperature. This is serious enough!
Among other things, the carcinogenic properties of pesticides are not studied at all and are not covered in the literature, this does not mean that they are not there.
Take protective measures, exclude children and pets from the processed apartment. After drying the leaves, be sure to ventilate the room. In order not to "freeze" the flowers in the air flow path, put a screen (for example, a sheet of plywood), do not allow the temperature to drop below 12-13 ° C. Many drugs lose their toxicity and become harmless a few hours after spraying.
If there is an aquarium in the room, then it is tightly closed and opened only when the treated plants dry.
In order not to suffer from headache, nausea and not endanger your health and your family, spray in the morning, isolate the treated plants for several hours, i.e. leave them behind a closed door in a room with an open window.
First aid in case of poisoning: if the drug gets on the skin, wash it off with soap and water; in case of contact with eyes, rinse abundantly with running water; if you get into the digestive tract, drink 3-4 glasses of water, induce vomiting, take several tablets of activated carbon, seek medical help.