Maria,

A couple weeks ago, I looked for it at my Walmart, too. I looked in the fishing/hunting/camping section, garden center and sunscreen booth and couldn't find it anywhere. Pretty strange for Florida, huh!! What department was it in?

Carol

Hi Carol! It was in the garden section where the fish pond supplies are. Now they were outside in the clearance section. Home Depot sells it too for $8 something. If you can't find it there in FL, email me and I'd send you some.

Thanks for the info - I don't think I looked there. And I'll give HD and Lowes a try, too, if I don't find them.

Bumping this one back to the top. I'm still very interested in the answer, as I'm sure is Maria. Anyone know the answers to her questions? (Please?!)

Here's my experience and research...

1. Per The Bacillus Research Group

"B. cereus and B. thuringiensis are common bacteria of the environment, that form spores when the supply of nutrients is limited. The spores are dormant cells in which the genome is well protected against external destructive agents like heat, drying, UV irradiation, and chemicals, and they may remain dormant for very long time periods (decades, possibly longer)."

2. Not sure how much per gallon as you want more surface area. So a milk gallon jug is bad, a pale with lots of surface is good to give more surface area and oxygen exchange.

Per instructions: Float one dunk in the pond per 100 square

3. I guess this is personal preference but I water my plants with BT every watering along with the normal diluted fertilizer. This is about once a week.

The doughnut shaped Bt called "MosquitoDunks" is good for 30 days like you indicated. I believe the Bt stays near the surface of the soil so, every 30 days should be enough. However, I apply every 2 weeks just in case.

"MosquitoDunks" instructions claim that 1/4 of a dunk will treat 1-5 sq. ft. For instance, my 3 gallon, 10 inch pots have about 78 sq. inches at the surface. So, 1/4 of a dunk should treat nearly 10 pots. Personally, I would use at least 1/3 or even 1/2 of a dunk for 10 pots. I feel safer using the stronger dosage. Using the 10 pot example again, I would dissolve that 1/3 of a dunk in about 2 gallons of water and try to roughly use equal amounts on each pot. You may use that same 1/3 dunk with 3-4 gallons of water as long as you use it on 1-5 sq. ft. and in equal amounts in each pot.

I don't leave dissolved Bt unused very long. I like having the Bt in the pot for it's 30-day life span rather than sitting in a container.

This stuff is pretty tame as for as toxicity, so don't get all bent about exacting measurments. Never heard of Bt harming plants regardless of dosage.

Wow...thank you so much Tokyomafia and Bigoledude for those info. Thank you Love the yard for bumping this up too! I have been waiting for your responses for days but knew everybody is busy out in their yard.
This is now what I'm thinking to do with BT:
Bottom watering: Dissolve/float 1/4 dunk in 2 gallons water and use every watering with fertilizer.
Top watering: Same as above OR pound/crumble 1/2 dunk (approximately 1 tablespoon) and spread on top of potting soil of 10 8-10 inch pots (lesser in smaller pots)in equal amounts every 30 days. If I'm calculating this right, the 10 inch pots will get a little bit lesser than a tsp... like 3/4 tsp. and 6-8 inch pots can have 1/2 tsp.
Am I in the right track? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I really wanted to get this straightened out because I just bought all the BT in WM...clearance price went down again to $2. Love the yard, if you haven't gotten it yet, email me and I'll send you some...save you some gas...lol!

I think I calculated that wrongly...10 inch pots get a little bit less than 1/2 tsp. and 6-8 inch pots 1/4.

I have re-evaluated my usage of BT. First, I found a granular type in water-soluble packets. I actually use enough to where I can see the granules in the water as I pour the water onto the soil surface. Which, is considerably more BT than I used before.

As we've mentioned before, the BT is supposed to last at least 30 days. Our county agent says BT will last much longer. Please, follow the directions on the package.

You will certainly avoid the ravages of the fungus gnat, without any danger of toxicity.