No good replacement for methyl bromide as of yet

The EPA banned methyl bromide years ago without having a decent replacement. There is nothing as effective to rid propagation beds of insects, diseases and weed seed.

I have sat through hours of talks about 25 to 30 different products being researched. None handle all 3 problems as effectively as methyl bromide.

I selfishly wish EPA would ban large scale use but allow use in small propagation beds for individuals without a decent alternative.

If a substitute is not found in 20 years, I wonder if the EPA will allow limited use. Does something like that ever happen?

Well the Word Health Organization (WHO), not the EPA, has just endorsed the indoor spraying of DDT to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes, reversing a 30-year policy.

The organization said there is little risk from the insecticide when it is used appropriately and that any risks are far outweighed by the effectiveness of DDT in controlling a disease that kills one million people annually.

Said one WHO official, ?The scientific and programmatic evidence clearly supports this reassessment. DDT presents no health risk when used properly.?

New data that suggest minimal effects to the environment or health from indoor spraying of DDT have largely eliminated the concerns which led to the ban on DDT in the early 1980s.

Isn?t that interesting? I recall it was banned for causing bird egg shells to be too thin. I saw newsreels of how DDT was dusted down the trousers of servicemen in the Pacific during WWII.

Those men were the fathers of my generation. I never heard of any negatives from that action. But indoor use is not the same as widespread outdoor use, regarding wildlife. I doubt that we will see DDT reintroduced into the US.

I guess Basamid is the best thing to fumigate beds with since we can?t use methyl bromide. I do not consider it great. It has several limitations and must be used just so-so, by the book. It does not provide the level of control that methyl bromide did.

It is granular and is best applied with a drop spreader that is the width of the bed or half as wide as the bed. It must be incorporated with a tiller.

The soil temperature must be between 54 to 64 degrees F for greatest success. Late summer or fall is best. The soil should be kept moist for five to seven days and sealed with poly.

A major negative is that it is much slower to leave a cold wet soil than methyl bromide. That kills spring use. More than 30 days is required for it to leave a soil with a temperature of 43 degrees farenheit.

A 200 square foot area requires 1.6 pounds of Basamid. It comes in 50-pound bags. Most beds are 4-by-48, or 192 square feet.