Re: Spinosad It's from Dow Chemical. Here is it's Material Safety & Data Sheet (MSDS): http://www.cdms.net/ldat/mp24Q001.pdf Here's the disclaimer: "The Information Here is Given in Good Faith. But No Warranty, Express or Implied, is Made. Consult Dow AgroSciences for Further Information." Here is an interesting article on Dow's track record with truth: http://www.safe2use.com/pesticides/truelies.htm Here's the story of Spinosad's origin (from Wikipedia): "The active ingredient is derived from a naturally occurring soil dwelling bacterium called Saccharopolyspora spinosa, a rare actinomycete reportedly collected from soil in an abandoned rum distillery on a Caribbean Island in 1982 by a vacationing scientist... It has not been found in nature since that time, and was subsequently described as a new species." I may be a slow learner, but I'm not THAT slow. Pass. Sue

Actually, I went to the grocery store this afternoon and stood there in the produce section like a dork "feeling" all the ears of corn to give myself something to compare when I feel mine. The lady next to me was ripping open every one and looking at them and I noticed that one she opened up, the very tip looked just like the one I did but the rest of the cob was fine. So when I got home, I peeled the husk back a little further and sure enough, there was a little green caterpillar or worm curled up in there, just below where I'd looked this morning, munching away. Above him, tiny shriveled looking mess, below him, full yellow kernels. I popped one and it was milky so I went ahead and picked that one and just chopped off the part my guest had been munching on. It's boiling now. None of the others looked even close to ready which is fine...I'm by myself this weekend so one is plenty :D This batch of cayennes are finally turning red and my new tomatoes and peppers have blooms today so that should be fun. Also picked two watermelons (already have one more in the fridge). All but two of my cucumber plants had died and these last two were really struggling. Not sure if it's bugs or disease or gardener error but I picked what cucs I could today and pulled those plants up. Haven't decided if I'll replant them for fall or not. I've already got about 30 jars of pickles put up but those grow so fast and produce so well they tend to keep me motivated when everything else slows down. And between my oldest and me, we can eat a jar of pickles in one sitting! Since I couldn't wait for my jalapenos to ripen, I picked some up at the store today. Time for fresh corn on the cob and bacon wrapped stuffed poppers!

Unless you put the Carbaryl (Sevin) directly into the ear of the corn you could spray all the corn all day long and have no affect on that coern earworm whatsoever since the wee bugger is inside the ear well protected from any poison you could apply from the outside. Organic gardeners would use an oil, squirted inside the ear near the silk, to smother that corn earworm, but since organic gardeners know that Carbaryl (Sevin) is useless this is not something they would use.

Hi Steve, I did find this site through your post on the Cedar Hills forum (you may know me as grbpwr on that site). I did try the Scotts last year in Spring and Fall but it didn't seem to help. I also sprayed weed killer on all the weeds every week without any noticeable difference. I changed all my cleaning supplies to organic over the past year and love it, it is so much more effective than chemical cleaners (baking soda, vinegar and Dr. Bonner's are my life) so I thought I would do the same for my yard, especially since chemicals didn't seem to get the job done last year. I have TONS of weeds. The yard on one side of my driveway (luckily this is the smaller area of front yard) is nothing but weeds and bare spots and my backyard isn't much better. I was actually planning to get one of those claw things for my dandelion problem because digging them up by hand like I tried last year was a flop due to the super long roots. I will try that on my existing crabgrass. Skoob, I hadn't heard about using plastic to kill existing crabgrass, but I had heard that a VERY light dusting of baking soda on existing crabgrass would kill it in about 5 hours without damaging the soil or grass around it. However, this has only been tested in warmer climates (FL, TX, etc.) so I was hesitant to use it, I think I will try both methods and see which is more effective. At this point nothing short of setting the grass on fire and starting over will make most of my lawn look any worse (although I do have a really nice section directly in the front which I want to encourage to spread).