Insect Pests of Alfalfa Seed Production and Their Control

Insecticides are perfectly safe when they are used according to directions. Use them safely. Store them where children, pets, or farm animals cannot reach them. A void spilling. Change clothes and bathe thoroughly with soap and water after spraying or dusting. Do not smoke or eat while mixing or applying insecticides. Do not feed hay or forage treated with DDT to milk cows, meat animals being finished for slaughter or to poultry. For other applictaions the following guide may be used in connection with feeding treated forage. Allow the indicated number of days to elapse between treatment and cutting for hay or grazing: aldrin up to 2 ounces per acre -wait 15 days; dieldrin up to 1 ounoe per acre- wait 30 days; heptachlor up to 4 ounces per acre-wait 10 days; toxaphene up to 1 ½ lb. per acre-wait 40 days. 2 Bees, both wild and honey bees are valuable as pollinators and must be protected .from careless inscticide applications. When necessary to treat alfalfa in bloom use only toxaphene; it is least toxic to bees. Apply it when bees are not working-before 7 A.M. and after 7P.M. If you have used your sprayer for applying weed killing chemicals it must be thoroughiy cleaned and neutralized before spraying alfalia. Flush out the tank and hoses, booms, and oozzles with clean water. Then fill the tank with an ammonia solution made up of one gallon of household ammonia in 100 gallons of water. Run some of the solution through the hoses, booms, and nozzles. Allow the remainder of the solution to stand in the spray tank, hoses and booms for 8 hours. Then flush it through the sprayer, rinse the tank with clear . water and run clean water through the hoses, booms, and nozzles