Hi! My husband and I have a linden tree on our property and in 2006, the beetles just decimated it. It was our main source of shade, so having it defoliated was awful. Anyway, I got some of the Bayer insecticide and applied it but I can't remember if I put it on in fall or spring). The beetles still got to the tree this summer, but not nearly as badly. It looked like the ends of the branches got nailed-all the newer growth. What was weird was we'd lived here for six years before this ever became a problem. And we have a small property, too, about.25 acre, plus there are about 50 rose bushes on the property. So now I am not sure if the Bayer helped or if the beetles just weren't as bad this year but I guess I'll try it again for the next growing season-but I am thinking that maybe I should wait until spring. The tree is fairly mature now-it's as high as our two story house, and about 15 feet across. So I wish you the best, Alexander3, and if anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it. (and my husband has treated the lawn with milky spore and nematodes, etc., and he keeps the rose bushes treated with something systemic-plus alot of manual control, i.e., knock 'em off the bushes into a coffee can, etc. Oh, and my dogs love to eat them!--so I knock the beetles out of the tree in the early morning, and the dogs run around under the tree munching away-it's rather disgusting)

Ditto what John said, jstn. On the non-organic insecticide scale, Imidicloprid appears to be very safe. With citrus there are no post-harvest timing restrictions. I wouldn't worry about it. You can now rest assured that any CLM you might have this spring will be well taken care of! And, in the future, if you do have aphids or CLM issues, you'll want to apply Imidicloprid after you've harvested your fruit if possible, and again, if possible, right after fruit set, post-blossom. That way, your bees are protected, and you'll have the product in the tree's system closer to CLM time (which for me starts around end of July in S. Calif.) And here John, you'll see this commercially applied as Merit :-) Patty S.

I alternated spinosad and neem oil every 7-10 days starting in late spring. Still got plenty of damage. I think it was just too hard for me to get 100% coverage on bushy trees.with leaves twisting in every direction. Some advice I was given when purchasing the spinosad at Grangettos, a farm and garden supply store, was to pinch off the flushes of new growth instead of wasting time spraying. I didn't do it initially because my trees were too young and I wanted them to put on some size. Now I encourage new growth in the early spring by fertilizing more at that time. The new growth has enough time to harden off before the leaf miners show up. Then fertilize less in the summer and fall, pinching new growth off at that time. if you are sick of spraying for citrus leaf miner it is a possible alternative to consider. This post was edited by econ0003 on Mon, Apr 15, 13 at 1:53

Some time has passed since anyone has posted on this, but I used the Bayer Advanced product for fruit trees (apple in my case) - in about May of 2013 on 3 apple trees. Now that harvest time is here, my apples are bigger and less diseased then I've ever seen them. The trees are very old - over 50 years and not much has been done to them except the last few years - slight pruning and a little one-time application of this or a similar product - and sometimes a lime sprinkling. Anyway, I am now so concerned about having used this product that I'm looking for comments from anyone else who has. I called the company a couple of weeks ago and was told that the amount of Imidacloprid used in the product is so small that it will not affect the fruit in terms of it's 'edibleness'. OK - so I picked several bushels of apples and started making pies, etc. I did eat some - raw and cooked and this past week my tongue has been kind of numb. It is possible that I burned it or overbrushed it but am not sure. I'm wondering if anyone else has used this and had anything similar. I'm just trying to figure out if it could at all be related to the Imidacloprid in the apples. I really hope that is not the case. Others have eaten a few slices of pies and are not having any reactions so I'm probably just being paranoid. My trees are huge and I used less than what the recommended amount was - but reading all the different posts - I thought I'd resurface this and ask some follow-up questions. (Had tons of bees on them this year and used the product after flowers were all off). As I'm about to hit 'submit' - I'm realizing that my daughter's friend gets a numb tongue from apples - maybe its in a lot of the apples we eat and children would be more 'allergic' / sensitive to this .... ? food for thought.