Resource Guide for Organic Insect and Disease ... - Cornell University

Fish based oils
Oleum Fish Oil (Alimentos Concentrados California SA de CV)
Organocide (Organic Laboratories, Inc)
SeaCide (Omega Protein, Inc)
Essential Oils
Ecotec (Brandt Consolidated, Inc.)
Ecotec G (Brandt Consolidated, Inc.)
Ed Rosenthal’s Zero Tolerance Herbal Pesticide Concentrate (Quick Trading Company)
Ed Rosenthal’s Zero Tolerance Herbal Pesticide Ready to Use (Quick Trading Company)
Sporatec (Brandt Consolidated, Inc.)
References to OMRI listed products in this Guide are based on the 2012 edition of the OMRI
Product List. Please consult www.omri.org for changes and updates in the brand name product
listings.
REENTRY INTERVAL (REI) AND PRE-HARVEST INTERVAL (PHI):
Stylet Oil: REI is 4 hours; pre-harvest interval is 0 hours;
Golden Pest Spray oil (soy bean oil): REI 12 hrs.
Essential oil products that are currently on the market are generally exempt from EPA
registration under FIFRA 25(b) and are exempt from REI and PHI requirements.
EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT:
Petroleum oils used on plants are lightweight and generally evaporate quickly. The
environmental effects of oil vapors are not known. Oils have negligible ability to contaminate
soil or groundwater. Plant and fish oils are not as volatile, but are broken down quickly by
microbes on leaf surfaces and in the soil. They are unlikely to have any effect on wildlife or
other non-target species (Ebbon 2002).
EFFECT ON NATURAL ENEMIES:
Oils can kill beneficial mites and cause flare-ups in pest mite populations, as shown in one
grape field study (Walsh et al. 2000). Oils are unlikely to have a major effect on most beneficial
species unless they are exposed to direct sprays. Eggs and immatures are generally more
susceptible to oil than adults.
EFFECTS ON HUMAN HEALTH:
Measurable oil residues from field spraying are unlikely to remain on crops at time of harvest,
so consumer exposure risk is very small. Most oils are of low toxicity to workers who are mixing
sprays.
EFFICACY:
Oils have a long history of effective use on fruit trees, but they have not been used as
extensively in vegetables and other crops. Oils are generally used against mite and scale pests,
particularly in dormant sprays on fruit crops; however, lightweight horticultural oils can also be
used on fruit during the season with little, if any, phytotoxic damage.
The addition of oil products likely improves the efficacy of other organically approved
pesticides, though product combinations are not included in this review. For instance,
combining oil and potassium bicarbonate is thought to produce better anti-fungal results than
either substance alone.
A database of university trials of oil products was compiled for this fact sheet. Universitybased
trials typically test products with untreated buffer rows and other conditions that create
unusually severe pest pressure. The level of pest control is likely to be higher on fields in which
a good program of cultural controls has been implemented.
146 Organic Resource Guide