Apply pesticides during the cooler part of the day, such as the early morning or evening. Treatments made in the early morning allow foliage to dry before temperatures reach 85–90°F. Take special precautions when using pesticides containing oil. Treat when conditions allow plants to dry quickly.
Apply in the morning when temperatures are cooler.
Many insecticides can cause damage to your plants if you spray them during the heat of the day. Applying insecticides in morning hours are best, evening hours are next best.
Most insecticides are broken down by heat and sunlight so the optimal time to spray insecticides is late evening or at night when temperatures are dropping and sunlight is fading. Many insect pests are nocturnal, so spraying right before they become active will increase the control of that first night.
It is always advised to make your application either in the early morning or early evening time. You don't ever want to make an application of insecticide or herbicide during mid day when the sun is at its hottest.
Watering-in recommendations are the same for insecticides. Although Acelepryn® and Meridian® 25WG insecticides are more forgiving than most insecticides when they are not watered in within 24 hours, it's still recommended that they are watered in.
Most Granular pesticides will need to be watered in to activate the product. If the granules are note watered in, the pesticide will be ineffective and will merely just sit stagnant in the soil where applied.
The typical time most harsher pesticide treatments need for a safe return is between 2 and 4 hours. After that time, an additional 30 minutes is recommended to let the building breathe. This should be done with windows open and fans running to allow air levels inside to return to normal.
In both the burndown and in-crop studies, the most effective timing was usually midday, followed by midnight. Coles says, “Since night spraying was usually more effective than dawn, night spraying could be a good option when daytime opportunities for spraying are limited.”
Apply once a week during light pest season, or twice a week during heavy pest season. Always spray in morning (before sunrise) or in late evening. Never spray in sunlight, or you'll risk scorching your plants. Spray plants liberally, and be sure to get the undersides of leaves, where many pests feed.
A huge number of creepy crawlies are active at night. They use the cover of darkness to find food, with less risk from predators. If you knew that a bird was going to swoop down and eat you, you might decide that going out night is worth it.
Night spraying has also been promoted as giving better weed control because it is cooler with higher humidity so target weeds will be less stressed.
The best time to spray pesticides is generally in the early morning or late evening when wind speeds are lower, convection is light but still present, and the spray droplets move slowly upward. Later in the day, the increased convection and wind makes pesticide drift more likely.
How Long Does it Take For Pest Control to Work? In most cases, you can expect to see a significant and noticeable reduction in pest activity within one to two days.
That said, it's never too late to spray for pests. If it's summer and you notice that your home is seeing more spiders, ants and beetles than in the past, you can have your home sprayed and see effective results.
Spring is when many pests emerge after remaining dormant in winter. It's also when some eggs hatch. You'll want to spray your yard early in spring just as the bugs, including mosquitoes and ants, are waking up. Catching them early will prevent breeding and a large infestation.
How long will pesticides last after application? A typical pest control application will last around 90 days. If outdoor applications see consistent or heavy rainfall, they efficacy may be affected and will last about 60 days. Pesticides used to treat flying insects like mosquitoes or flies will last around 30 days.
Phytotoxicity, or unintentional pesticide damage to plants, results in abnormal growth, foliar burn, leaf drop, and discolored, curled, and spotted leaves (ex. 2, 4-D herbicide injury to grape). If phytotoxicity is severe, the plant may die.
Overapplication is another cause of plant damage. Even though a product is considered safe to apply to a particular plant, application at a higher rate than the label recommends can burn the plant. People often mistakenly think that if a little of the insecticide works, more will work even better.
As for misting — for the plants that need to be misted to thrive like air plants and ferns — it's best to mist them in the morning *and* the evening whenever possible. The morning mist helps to prepare them for the day ahead, while the evening misting helps create a little extra humidity.
“Maybe by spraying early in the morning or even at night when you have that heavy dew, that dew could be helping distribute the fungicide deeper into the canopy, helping control the areas that tend to be the spots where infections are coming on.”
To effectively kill weeds, it's recommended that you spray 30 minutes to an hour before rain, if not earlier, depending on the brand you choose. After it rains, wait for the leaves to dry out before spraying, or the herbicide may be washed away.
A sprayer should never be left to sit overnight without cleaning. If the same product mixture is to be used the next day, flushing the sprayer system with water should be sufficient. However, if switching products or crops, a more thorough cleaning is needed.
While most insecticide poisonings occur from swallowing the chemical, the ingredients can be absorbed through your skin or by breathing airborne particles. Once the material has dried, this risk is greatly diminished.
When applied systemically and taken up by the plant, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin can have residual activity within plants for months to years. ӧ Imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin are persistent in soil, with residues present for months to years.