Um, they poison the water supply, pets, your children, helpful bugs like spiders and bees...

i don't have pets, children. and it is an enclosed area, i haven't seen any spiders around. there is no bees, either.

so is it ok to use it?

will those things poison the vegetables that i grow? are they safe to eat?

There's nothing so bad about non-organic pesticides, if used properly and sparingly. However, if you have to ask if the vegetables will be poisoned and ask if the vegetables will be safe to eat, why not go with something you are more comfortable using? You will feel safer, and there will be no side effects on your vegetables or the soil.
Google "pill bugs" and you will find some insecticides you can get for less than $8 that will take care of the little critters.

why do you want to get rid of pill bugs? They're good for the soil. Hmm.....you want to poison the soil killing something that's good for it. ???

Methylaldehyde is otherwise known as formaldehyde, so if that's what's in it, I certainly wouldn't want to be eating that.

For pillbugs, I honestly don't know why you'd bother with anything but iron phosphate or, at the worst, spinosad. The general strategy is to use what has the narrowest spectrum product first, and only progress to broader spectrum, more dangerous pesticides if the narrowest spectrum controls don't work. Otherwise, you risk killing off your predators and pollinators (as well as potentially poisoning yourself) and thus exposing yourself to even greater infestations later.

i haven't seen any spiders around. there is no bees, either.

That'd be a very big problem. If you don't have predators, your pest populations are going to explode, and if you don't have pollinators, you're going to get poor yields. But odds are that they're there and you just haven't seen them.

Pesticides, like sevin, can be used safely according to the instructions on the label. Most people over-use it. A dusting is just that; dust. If you can see it, it is too much. And really you only want to use it directly where it is needed in order to try to not kill the good bugs.

And speaking of good bugs....why do you want to kill pillbugs? What did they ever do to you? Poor things.

what will happen if i buy that product which has some methylaldehyde in it?

First of all, is it even effective against pill bugs? The product you are looking at is one of the older products for slugs/snails and I may be wrong, but doubt it works with pill bugs. Even iron phosphate doesn't kill them, it's spinosad in sluggo 'plus' that kills them.

Then there is the question of whether pill bugs need to be controlled at all. There are reports of pill bugs getting numerous enough that they start feeding on plants, but most of the time they are a harmless garden resident that is happy to just chow down on decomposing organic matter and no threat.

The advantage of the iron phosphate pesticides over the methylaldehyde ones is iron phosphate remains effective against rain much longer than the methylaldehyde does. More bang for the buck. Iron phosphate is not only *more* effective for slug/snail control than methylaldehyde, but it's virtually non toxic unless way more is used than the directions indicate.

Here is what the EPA has to say about Methylaldehyde : Exposure to formaldehyde irritates the eyes, nose, and throat, and can cause skin and lung allergies. Higher levels can cause throat spasms and a build-up of fluid in the lungs, leading to death. Contact can cause severe eye and skin burns, leading to permanent damage. These may appear hours after exposure, even if no pain is felt. Formaldehyde can cause an asthma-like allergy. Future exposures can cause asthma attacks, with shortness of breath, wheezing, cough, and/or chest tightness. Repeated exposures may cause bronchitis, with symptoms of cough and shortness of breath. Formaldehyde is classified by the NOHSC as a Category 2 carcinogen (substance that should be regarded as if it is carcinogenic to humans).

i haven't seen any spiders around. there is no bees, either.

That's because of all the damn poisons people use these days.

Just because YOU don't have children or pets doesn't mean you shouldn't take that into consideration when you are planning on using chemicals. I prefer not to use chemicals but chemicals are not automatically bad it depends upon how they are used and as one writer put it use the narrowest spectrum first. And buddy, if you have no spiders or bees? You are in a heap of trouble. Use Google and find out about this methylaldehyde. You need to know what you are using, how to use it and how to protect yourself from it too. I have been to the cancer hospital at the University of Missouri (with a friend) and seen the effects of overexposure to "bug and herb" killers. I can't remember the name off hand, but I use a very strong brush killer on some land on which I do not organically farm. I am oh so careful with it because it is so toxic but it does what I need it to do. I know how to use it and be careful with it and I use it sparingly. Still, I worry about what is going into the soil, the groundwater, into the food etc. You are right to ask questions. Learn about the stuff you're using. Good luck.

I couldn't have a garden without the use of a few chemicals. I try to be very careful in their use ....

You personally can choose to be organic or not so organic....I do the best I can on the organic side but once in a great while I see something like my veggies being devoured and I get a little un-organic until I can rid myself of the problem. You decide...but just because you choose to use a chemical doesn't mean that you are a bad person or that you are going to kill yourself or your future children or every butterfly or bee within miles..Take teauteau's advice and learn how to properly use a product and you will be surprised how little you actually have to use and you can supplement the chemical with organic methods...The best thing you can do is go into your garden and take notice of what is happening every day...you will recognize a problem long before it becomes a serious issue. I learned that with horn worms....they are easy to remove from a plant although they give me the serious heebee jeebies but if you don't get out in that garden every day, in two days time. a hornworm can take a tomato plant to the ground...I found one poor plant that had 3 of them on it and it was practically leafless...Just do the best you can and learn how to use the chemical if you have to use them.

Read the label and follow the directions and cautions on it. Don't assume that because a little is called for, a lot will do a better job. I try to be organic as much as possible, but I do resort to chemicals when necessary. The chemical stuff isn't healthy for my ducks so I try to stay away from it.

preppy: Because they usually poison you too.

For me it's not really about organic v. nonorganic. Neem is organic and it can still kill bees. So it's more about what fixes your problem with the least collateral damage. 'Start low, go slow', 'Don't use an elephant gun to kill a mosquito', that kind of thing. Choose something that doesn't hang around for too long, that breaks down into harmless by-products. Try the lowest concentration first, don't apply more often than recommended, never broadcast-spot treat, dispose of properly, read labels. Sometimes you can treat the cause and the symptom goes away without chemical intervention. Drought stressed plants are more susceptible to insect attack, for example, so you could water more deeply and provide mulch. In your case...try changing your mulch ; )

The problem with the non-organic AND a number of the stronger organic pest killers is that they are non-selective. They don't just eliminate the pests, they eliminate everything else too.

If conditions in your garden are such that the normally harmless, even beneficial, pill bugs have multiplied to the point that they are eating live plants you probably need to work on those conditions. Otherwise even a careful targeting of the pill bugs will only mask the problem rather than correct it. :-)

Just keep in mind that something like 98% of all insects are benign or actually beneficial if they pass through your garden.

If you're just unwilling to identify those that may damage your plants under some conditions and control only those and the less-than optimal conditions and prefer to kill them all, responsible gardeners can't help you.

True or not, you seem to be saying you'd rather kill them all and don't care if you poison your plants or soil. Not many people here will give you a thumbs-up if that's your attitude. Smart gardening is always a harmonious dance with nature in its positive and negative aspects, not an iron fist used against it. It's MUCH bigger than you are.

I'm thinking there's got to be some way to reduce the pillbug population without spraying anything at all.

The only problems I've ever had with pillbugs is sometimes they eat the tender sprouts of things like beans, but most of the time they are harmless scavengers. I'm wondering if preppyjock has some condition in his garden that's making the pillbugs more numerous than usual. If so, poisoning them will only help temporarily at best. It's curing the symptom rather than the disease.

The only thing I can think of is maybe preppyjock's garden is especially damp for some reason. But that's just a guess.

Pillbugs aren't insects, they're actually a kind of terrestrial crustacean, so they need cool, damp conditions to survive. The only times I've had problems with them is during rainy early spring weather. The rest of the time they stick to my compost pile and underneath rocks.

There's an organic product out called Sluggo Plus that will kill pill bugs. It's safe for the ground, the plants, and for you.

We don't have kids, but my biggest reason for going organic is that the food you grow and harvest is so much better for you. Chemicals leach out the beneficial nutrients in the soil which is why you have to replace them via artificial means (chemicals).

Poison is poison it's only a matter of degree.

I have probably a different view on this. It is quite possible that you don't know what is in fact eating your veggies. I have found that most insects are feeding on plants at night. Go out an hour or so after dark with a good flashlight and check out the nightlife. Chances are you have some earwigs that are feasting. I have almost never seen them in the day but they sure are active at night. I squish em between 2 popsicle sticks. Do this for 4-5 nights in a row and you will notice a vast drop in your plants being eaten.

I generally don't bother with pillbugs except when plants are at the seedling (most vulnerable) stage. I have seen them feasting on plants but I am pretty sure I don't have high concentrations of them. But in the early stages I squish em too.

I avoid all pesticides like the plague. We used to use Sevin early on when we first started the garden some years back but hey man, we're eating those veggies ! We also decided to grow mostly exotic varieties of melons and veggies since when I add up the time, water, and other expenses we're running something like $5 per tomato.

It sounds like you have a fairly limited space. You should be able to maintain it as I have described above without pesticides. Something else I have found that works wonders is DE -- Diatomaceous Earth that is used for swimming pool filters. Sprinkle it around your plants in a ring and it will eliminate many of the crawling bugs that cause trouble.

Wayne

Long growing seasons like LA have a bug bonanza and it's really hard to not kill everything in sight but it helps to know that it works. Over here in North Texas, I can pretty much grow year round and that means the bad bugs get to breed at least twice each year. Unfortunately the good bugs take longer so they only usually breed once a year. Once I stopped using anything but BT, I took some big hits for about 3 years. After that the good bugs could control most outbreaks if I gave them 2-3 days to call in the troops. If you can get lizards and toads to live in your garden then you definitely have the bad bugs at a disadvantage.

You also need to understand that plant distress calls bad bugs to the plants. It's mother nature's way of culling the herd and in the case of pill bugs, cleaning up the mess. Over feeding with fertilizers can create rapid new growth that also sends out signals to bugs. Healthy plants really have a better chance to survive provided the environment is somewhat balanced. I try to create a rhythm in the garden that the good insects can adapt to and prosper. It works out in the end.

I realize some people just can't deal with it my way so I give my experience and let them decide. Gardening is not like learning your multiplication tables. To become a master there are many setbacks and failures, but the truths reveal themselves if you're looking.