Aug 15, 2011 – The Crickets But Not The Dog
QUESTION:
Is there any Mole Cricket bait or insecticide that could be used on a lawn without poisoning my dog that uses that lawn for his bathroom?
ANSWER:
I believe you could feel comfortable with the use of many of the mole cricket products, including both baits and contact insecticides. Let's do the bait products first. These are granular formulations and the intent is for the crickets to find and eat the granules that are spread on the soil surface. Many of these contain boric acid as the active ingredient, such as Niban baits and MotherEarth bait, and the boric acid is present in the bait at only 5%, meaning a dog would have to consume a tremendous amount of that bait even to feel ill. Properly used by scattering the bait over the surface the possibility of the dog licking up that large quantity would seem highly unlikely. The Label recommendation for the use of baits is to water the turf first, apply the bait late in the afternoon or early evening, and then not water for awhile afterward. This helps to draw the mole crickets out and keeps the bait available to them.
There are a great many contact insecticide products labeled for mole crickets, and you can see the entire list of all labeled products on PestWeb in our Product Documents resource. Select the tab on the right "Products by Target Pest", then crickets, then mole crickets. Here you see that most of the products are synthetic pyrethroids, and these also have a very low toxicity to mammals such as dogs and cats, particularly when they are diluted with water to their extremely low use strength. Among the choices are many permethrin products, such as MasterLine Permethrin and Dragnet, and we can recognize that permethrin is also used in dog flea shampoos and even for head louse shampoos for children, a testament to the very low hazard this active ingredient poses to warm blooded animals.
The Label instructions for permethrin and probably all other contact insecticides suggests applying the diluted spray late in the afternoon or early evening and then "watering" it in with a 1/2 inch of water to get the active ingredient into the top layer of soil. This encourages contact by the mole crickets as they move to the surface to feed at night. It also moves the active ingredient away from potential contact by pets or children. However, given the LD-50 (relative toxicity) of permethrin to mammals, the amount of diluted material that would have to be contacted by the skin would be so huge that it is impractical to think someone could be poisoned by casual and momentary contact by walking on that treated turf.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
Is there any Mole Cricket bait or insecticide that could be used on a lawn without poisoning my dog that uses that lawn for his bathroom?
ANSWER:
I believe you could feel comfortable with the use of many of the mole cricket products, including both baits and contact insecticides. Let's do the bait products first. These are granular formulations and the intent is for the crickets to find and eat the granules that are spread on the soil surface. Many of these contain boric acid as the active ingredient, such as Niban baits and MotherEarth bait, and the boric acid is present in the bait at only 5%, meaning a dog would have to consume a tremendous amount of that bait even to feel ill. Properly used by scattering the bait over the surface the possibility of the dog licking up that large quantity would seem highly unlikely. The Label recommendation for the use of baits is to water the turf first, apply the bait late in the afternoon or early evening, and then not water for awhile afterward. This helps to draw the mole crickets out and keeps the bait available to them.
There are a great many contact insecticide products labeled for mole crickets, and you can see the entire list of all labeled products on PestWeb in our Product Documents resource. Select the tab on the right "Products by Target Pest", then crickets, then mole crickets. Here you see that most of the products are synthetic pyrethroids, and these also have a very low toxicity to mammals such as dogs and cats, particularly when they are diluted with water to their extremely low use strength. Among the choices are many permethrin products, such as MasterLine Permethrin and Dragnet, and we can recognize that permethrin is also used in dog flea shampoos and even for head louse shampoos for children, a testament to the very low hazard this active ingredient poses to warm blooded animals.
The Label instructions for permethrin and probably all other contact insecticides suggests applying the diluted spray late in the afternoon or early evening and then "watering" it in with a 1/2 inch of water to get the active ingredient into the top layer of soil. This encourages contact by the mole crickets as they move to the surface to feed at night. It also moves the active ingredient away from potential contact by pets or children. However, given the LD-50 (relative toxicity) of permethrin to mammals, the amount of diluted material that would have to be contacted by the skin would be so huge that it is impractical to think someone could be poisoned by casual and momentary contact by walking on that treated turf.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
