A warning about spraying GB plants

[Ryan Garlington]

Ive always used an organic bug spray in my garden made with a variety of herb oils.

I gave most of the garden a good spraying recently, and as I walked past a growbed I gave a single spray to a cherry tomato plant growing in there. This ended up killing 4 goldfish and a small koi over the next couple of days. That oil coats the gills of the fish and blocks absorption of oxygen. My water is well oxygenated- it hardly goes 5 minutes without a growbed emptying into it. But these doomed fish were breathing from the surface like they were in dead water. Im very lucky my tilapia have shown no problems.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Nate from bright agrotech suggest you divert the flow away from the fish tank when you spray. I would say discard the water from sprayed growbeds to flush out the toxins

[Ryan Garlington]

I saw that Nate Storey video where he shows how they divert their water.

It wasn't thinking when I sprayed, but I thought a single spray wasn't a huge problem.

Big mistake.

[Scott Roberts]

What exactly was it that you used?

[David - WI]

The part about "coating the gills" seems kind of unlikely from just a single shot, possibly you have some sort of "fish stupefying" herb in the mix?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_toxins

[Ryan Garlington]

I used ecosmart organic bug spray. There's a little girl and a dog on the label.

David- thanks for that link. I'm not growing any of that stuff. I'm growing tarragon, thyme, dill, romaine, cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes, green onions, and strawberry.

[David - WI]

No, I meant themix of "herb oils" in the bug spray that you sprayed on the tomato.

[Ryan Garlington]

Ingredients:
2-phenethyl propionate
Clove oil
Rosemary oil
Peppermint oil
Thyme oil
Water/other stuff

[David - WI]

Clove oil is used to sedate fish (or kill them at higher doses).

• Effectively induces hypoxia, hypercapnia, unconsciousness and death (Borski and Hodson, 2003).

[Scott Roberts]

Interesting - the first ingredient, 2-phenethyl propionate, is peanut essential oil.  Which has been shown to kill mollusks, but no fish studies have been done, and it's considered low risk. The amount of clove oil in the product shouldn't be enough to sedate the fish. I use a clove/rosemary oil product for aphid control, and have seen no evidence of adverse effects in my fish.

Could there be something else going on? Change in weather? Increased temperatures leading to decreased O2, plus increased metabolic activity? I'm not surprised your Tilapia aren't complaining - hardy tilapia seem to be able to withstand almost anything except an encounter with the kitchen knife.

[Ryan Garlington]

The weather and water temp have been pretty consistent. I'm pretty sure it was the spray. Here's my reasoning. The gb that I sprayed empties directly into the tank. The a second unsprayed gb empties into a sump that flows into the fish tank via a siphoning pipe that empties below the waterline. For a few days the surviving goldfish were huddled tightly together facing this siphoning pipe, breathing from the water coming from the clean gb. They are behaving normally now, so I think the genocide is over.

[Steve R]

It entirely depends on what bug spray your using and how it is applied. What spray did you use?

[Alex Veidel]

He said he used "Ecosmart Organic Bug Spray".

This one, I think: http://www.amazon.com/Ecosmart-33119-Organic-Control-24-Ounce/dp/B0...

Steve R said:

It entirely depends on what bug spray your using and how it is applied. What spray did you use?