I was given a absolutely beautiful Azalea as a birthday present 3 yrs ago. I didn't know that it was poisonous to cats and found out the hard way. I almost lost the main man in my life. Yes thats my cat Hedwig. Thankfully after running him to the vet he is now fine. Since that happened I make sure I check to see it is safe to be in my house. Whether it be a plant that is given as a present to me or one I may be interested in buying. I would be absolutely devastated if anything happened to him due to me not makeing absolutely sure it was safe to have that plant in my house. Myself,I also think they should not only have information about the plant on the tag when you buy it but also if it is dangerous to cats or dogs. Doesn't take up a whole lotta space to say dangerous to cats or dangerous to dogs. Not everyone has a computer to check these things out. I have found that alot of people selling the plants think that 2+2=6 when you ask them if it is dangerous to cats or not. But the long and short of everything is when in doubt always do this check check check before you buy a plant. You don't want to hurt your furry friends unknowingly. Take care all you cat lovers and have a nice day Lori and Hedwig

Merit 75 WP, which is the same active ingredient, imadicloprid, is approved for use on "Pome Fruits" per the label. I don't personally see why it would be any less safe on a peach than on an apple when sprayed at the same concentration. It also might not be a question of safety, but one of efficacy. Perhaps stone fruits don't absorb the A.I. as well, so it's not effective on them (although I find this hard to believe with this particular compound, since it's pretty universally effective on most any plant). Sometimes, only certain crops are listed on a label because: 1) the safety testing required by the government pre-approval and release is very expensive to conduct 2) the company hoping to release the chemical targets the crops and markets it feels will give it the best return on its investment in terms of the widest use. Just because a certain plant or class of plants isn't listed on the label doesn't necessarily mean that the product won't be safe and effective when used on those crops. It may just mean the company didn't feel like it would be worth the investment to test the chemical on these crops. Also, the tests may be ongoing with results pending, and the company decided to release and later add to the list of approved crops on the label. The thing that I keep thinking about pesticides is how concerned people seem to be about spraying anything on their trees. Yet, the vast majority of people eat fruit imported from all over the world, places like Chile, Honduras, Mexico, etc., where environmental laws, food safety laws, and pesticide laws are much more lax than ours. God only knows what's been used on imported fruit in your average grocery store? Probably stuff that was banned in the U.S. in the 1960's. DDT, for one, is still a widely used chemical around the world, mostly in third world countries with lax laws, because it's cheap and effective at killing bugs, despite all of the colateral damage it does to the ecosystem. The USDA is supossed to test fruit imported from other countries, but the vast majority, more than 98%, slips through untested. Sorry, I spray my plants with insecticides and fungicides. I get fruit, without bugs in it. I eat it. There are plenty of ways to die of cancer -- cell phones, contaminated drinking water from industrial pollution, nitrates and nitrites in hot dogs, radon in the basement, secondhand smoke. And yes, I eat fruit from the grocery store as well in the off season. It doesn't bother me all that much. I take my life in my hands every time I get in the car and drive on the freeway with all of the crazies on the road. I figure a little pesticide residue is the least of my worries.

John, my question was directed at those that appear to blindly accept whatever nonesense our government blabbers. The Food and Drug Administration was meant to be a consumer protection agency but rapidly evolved into a producer protection agency. These Genetically Engineered plants have never been tested for anything related to humans by the manufacturers because humans are no the targets of that modification, so not testing is required. Even way back when they were first grown outside the laboratory and forbidden from entering the human food chain and used as animal food (they would not enter the food chain for humans in the meat?) these GE products did get into that part of the food chain, and still no testing of any harm to humans was done. Today, since humans have been consuming these products for 40 or 50 years and no one has yet died from eating them (we have been the labratory rated for these companies) they are now presumed safe for human consumption. We have no idea what adverse affects on us these have.

when used as directed, any pesticide available off the shelf of any open to the public retailer is safe. the key here is the first phrase, WHEN USED AS DIRECTED. every one of my garden hoses has a label that states "this hose or it's components contains lead, a substance know to teh state fo California to cause cancer". i don't plan on eating the fittings, so the lead ain't gonna hurt me. i also do not drink from my pesticide dispensers, and i wash off fully immediately after applying pesticides. i have been directly sprayed before, and i can tell you it ain't no fun. when i worked for the USDA doing pesticide experiments, we were working a field hand counting bugs on the cotton. a crop duster sprayed the wrong field and soaked 7 of us. we all had to take off for a few days due to nausea and our eyes burning. this is why fields have signs up that NO ONE may enter for any reason. when i spray around my house, the same things goes, no people allowed in the area until it dries. and no, i am not baiting people with posts about pesticides. pesiticide use is very common in my area. most folks still use the sevin dust, i switched to liquid for both ease of application and less collateral damage to the environment.