Questions on Diatomaceous earth

[nachoqtpie]

So, since my husband and I want to try and keep our garden organic and not use any sort of chemicals, I brought up Diatomaceous earth to use in the garden, because I know a lot of you guys use it for various things.

A Quick read of Wikipedia says

Diatomite is also used as an insecticide, due to its physico-sorptive properties. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate.[9] Arthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency, based on Fick's law of diffusion.

Buuuuut..... what about bees??? We eventually want to get a couple of bee hives, and I would HATE to be using something that's just going to kill my bees. Even if we DON'T get beehives, we still want bees, butterflies, and the likes to be attracted to our garden and not croak because they visited.

We tried ladybugs last year and they didn't really have any effect on the bad bugs. Looking back, I think we didn't have the "right type" of bad bugs for the ladybugs to work. The only ones we really needed anything for was the bush beans (bean leaf beetles) and the pumpkin (squash beetles early on and they were completely taken out by the vine borers). The watermelon was very mildly effected by the squash beetles, but not terribly so.

What do you guys think? Pros? Cons? Other suggestions?

 

[so lucky]

I have never seen any warning regarding bees or butterflies when using DE. Maybe the differences between crawling and flying insects are what keeps DE from being harmful to the fliers. I don't think DE works for flies, either. But it does for fleas. I use it in my garden, and in my chicken coop. And on the ground if it gets stinky from wet chicken poo. You can buy it in a 20 lb bag for cheap.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Oh boy! I hadn't considered this before. I use DE in my garden, chicken coop and goat barn all the time AND we have bees. I only put the DE on the surface of the soil and never on the plants but I'm still very concerned.

Let's try to keep this thread active and I'll send out an SOS to members of our beekeepers association to see what they say about it. I'll be back.

 

[nachoqtpie]

I've never bought DE before, so I have no idea what's on the package. Hubs and I were just talking about how it works and I said I had no idea so I looked it up and that's what I found.

Now he's freaked out that if we use it that we're going to contribute to the decline of the honey bees and has said that he doesn't really feel safe using it. LOL

I love my husband, but sometimes he way overthinks things!

We certainly don't want to have another year like last year. Pumpkins were a complete loss, and we tried really hard to save them. We didn't even know about vine borers. Who knew that some white powder could have saved them all along.

 

[thistlebloom]

There's a lot of conflicting views about DE on the 'net, seems most of them are opinions. But the general gleaning of knowledgeable
fact based articles is this:

DE is not discriminatory, it will work on most insects it contacts. Including bees.

Keep it on the soil.

DO NOT apply to blooms where the bees hang out.

Apply in the evening when any possible drift will not contact a bee flying by.

Always always always make sure you're using food grade.

 

[nachoqtpie]

So you shouldn't put it on the leaves? I figured that we wouldn't put it on the flowers, but, not the leaves either?

 

[hoodat]

A mistake many beginners make is to buy the DE meant for swimming pool filters because it is cheaper. That DE will not do the job. DE works by the sharp edges pucturing the insects exoskeleton so that it, in effect, bleeds out. The DE used in filters has few if any sharp edges. The edges are microscopic so they will do no harm to your skin but you should wear a dust mask to avoid breathing it when applying it. It is very irritating to the lungs. It also will not work well on insects that have hard exoskeletons like some beetles but beetles like cucumber and bean beetles don't have shells that are that hard.

 

[nachoqtpie]

Thanks whoodat! I'm still confused tho... do I apply it to the leaves or just the ground? I wouldn't apply it to the flowers so that the bees and butterflies and such wouldn't be effected, and I understand that I should put it on in the evening as well.

 

[lesa]

On the subject of your pumpkins- I did many hours of research on the vine borers. They are the most frustrating garden pest! One day your pumpkins are beautiful- the next day, they are dead! The one idea I found that made sense was this... every couple of days wash the stems of the pumpkin plants with insecticidal soap. Put it on a cloth and rub the stems. I hate to give up growing pumpkins, so I will try this. They also say the borer is under the dirt, about an inch in a white cocoon. Call me crazy, but I will be combing through the pumpkin planting area, very carefully! I know this seems kind of labor intensive, but I spend some time every night in the patch looking for squash bugs anyway- so I will just take an extra minute and wash the stems.

 

[nachoqtpie]

Someone posted something on one of my threads about my dying pumpkins about injecting something into their stems.... I'm going to have to look for that...