Subject: Re: insecticidal soap
From: hillersb@aol.com (Hiller SB)
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 05:40:54 -0400
Message-ID: <MOD$970823.21374@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$970822.29022@rec.gardens.ecosystems>


In article <MOD$970822.29022@rec.gardens.ecosystems>, "Bill Robinson"
writes:

>
>The practical answer to your question would be that pyrethrin is
>appropriate
>in an organic gardening program because it is a relatively safe material to
>use
>and because it is environmentally friendly. Piperonyl butoxide, on the
>other
>hand, is relatively toxic and could not be considered as environmentally
>friendly. The Organic Crop Growers Improvement Association's International
>Certification Standards specifically prohibits the use of piperonyl
>butoxide
>on certified crops.

All right, look, Bill, and friends (not that you're not one, Bill, because
you are), first of all, if we all could afford to browse the web (I can't,
I use the newsgroup to stay offline, long distance charge just to make it
here at $6.00 per hour and we all know how long the web takes to download
junk and if you browse you run up a serious bill), we would, and we would
go get the FAQ.

How dare you have an FAQ on the web and never post it on the newsgroup to
which it is intended.

Second of all, and perhaps it's in the FAQ but I won't see it because I'm
tired of phone bills of $50 to $200 per month, but you fail to answer the
question here, and the question, to me at least, is your loaded vocabulary
of "relatively toxic," "relatively safe," "environmentally friendly," and
"certified." I am very hot and bothered by the uses of these words. Is
"organic" a matter of degree? If it's "kinda OK" does that mean it's
organic? Or is "kinda OK" a gray area acceptable to organic gardeners, or
perhaps organic and/or "ecosystem" (not at all the same thing) gardening is
a state of mind only and has nothing to do with the real world?

Perhaps the info on WWW ~ which I'm not going to go read because it costs
me $$$ to do so ~ will be made available here on r.g.e. where all can read
with adequate software that can handle offline activity.

I don't care how many posts it takes. It is the moderators' duty to post
FAQs from time to time rather than shunting us to other sources that many
people on the Internet may not have access to or can't afford every time
the darn thing is referred to on this newsgroup. You would be surprised how
many people can read newsgroups but not WWW. There are others who worry
that when they call up a web site they will receive one worthwile document
and 20 or 30 GIFs and JPGs that have nothing to do with the information
they seek.

I would appreciate, from time to time (not every day, for gosh sakes), a
posting of the FAQ. Other moderated newsgroups do this maybe once a month,
more if necessary.

(I'm one of those butt heads who believes Tomato Hornworm control means a
pair of gloves, an old T-shirt that accepts splatter, and a pair of pruning
shears to slice the bastards in half and watch them leak my precious tomato
leaves all over the rest of the plant they didn't eat yet)

(while the part of the plant they DID eat looks like a prickly cactus)

Oh yeah, insecticidal soap, the subject at hand in this thread, I guess
I'm not too worried about that, a blast of Ivory and water seems to control
just about everything around here except the hornworms.

Oh while I'm at it and you can tell I'm BUGGED but is introducing a
product such as BT ORGANIC since it is not naturally occurring in the doses
required to give the bad bugs heartburn like I have right now.

Vince