Pretty Sad

thomas rooks

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A while back I came home and the first thing I do is check my trees, everything looked o.k. but there was a can of mosquito spray there next to one of my tree. I didn't think it was so odd sense the bugs here in Florida can be bad. But about three days later I noticed the needles were turning brown on my twenty year old Black Pine and my fifteen year old White Pine. I smelled the trees and the and they smelled like bug spray. I tried rinsing and thought about basically washing them with a spray of light solution of Dawn soap. But I do not what to do except wait and see.
 

moke

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That’s terrible my friend, wish you and your trees the best. Hopefully they recover, any idea whom did it?
Six pack of whop ass!!:mad:
 

Cadillactaste

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A while back I came home and the first thing I do is check my trees, everything looked o.k. but there was a can of mosquito spray there next to one of my tree. I didn't think it was so odd sense the bugs here in Florida can be bad. But about three days later I noticed the needles were turning brown on my twenty year old Black Pine and my fifteen year old White Pine. I smelled the trees and the and they smelled like bug spray. I tried rinsing and thought about basically washing them with a spray of light solution of Dawn soap. But I do not what to do except wait and see.
Have they been in your collection long? Assuming so...since you know their age.
 

sparklemotion

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That sucks. My instinct would be to try to run as much water over the tree/through the roots as possible. But I could see that being the wrong answer too.

Any idea whether they hit the soil as well as the needles? If it seemed like maybe the soil was spared, I would try tipping the on its side so that the run off from rinsing the needles wouldn't go to the roots.
 

thomas rooks

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Thanks for the input, I've been a Bonsai lover since 1990 and I did raise the two trees mentioned. It's like having a special thing in your life (like a favorite dog or a collection of anything that has your interest). Our yard is fenced in with some very protective dogs, so who ever done this had to be someone that the dogs knew. But what comes around goes around.
 

thomas rooks

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I lost both trees, but I have inclination who did it. I'm 60 now and really do have the time to start from scratch again. So I'll spend the money to replace the trees that are about the same time frame.
 

Cadillactaste

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You have an inclination...do tell? Also...what brand of mosquito spray was it? Just curious. We spray ourselves in a designated area near vegetation/flower beds on a patio trying to keep it off the main traffic areas of the tile for it makes it slippery. We have entire mission teams spraying themselves in this location. Though not directly on plants they do get overspray since we use continuous spray.

Sorry for your loss...this actually surprised me.
 
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thomas rooks

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The spray was Deep Wood's Off mosquito spray, I do not use it, and the bottle was stored on the rear part of my back porch, but the poor trees reeked of the smell of the spray, thanks for the reply.
 
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Best put up a sign "no spraying" before you replace them. You dont want a repeat when you get your new trees, good luck
 

Bonsai Nut

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I was curious about this subject, and did a quick Internet search. I found this:

DEET, the active ingredient in most mosquito repellant will burn the foliage of most any plant and if sprayed with a heavy dose can completely desiccate even large plants. Years ago growers would spray milkweed with mosquito repellant containing DEET and it would quickly burn the plants down to the ground. Milkweed plants would soon after send up new shoots. Years ago one of the major chemical companies investigated developing DEET as a herbicide but as I recall it was too expensive to manufacture and formulate and efforts to register the active ingredient were discontinued

The herbicidal action of DEET is contact and can be considered similar to any contact herbicide like paraquat, Liberty, Cobra, etc. It has limited translocation in the plant so any of the growing points not injured by the spray will develop branches and regrowth will occur. If annual plants are sufficiently covered with the spray then the plants will die but perennial plants like lawn grass, milkweed, and dandelion will grow back from perennial underground roots.
 

Cadillactaste

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I was curious about this subject, and did a quick Internet search. I found this:

DEET, the active ingredient in most mosquito repellant will burn the foliage of most any plant and if sprayed with a heavy dose can completely desiccate even large plants. Years ago growers would spray milkweed with mosquito repellant containing DEET and it would quickly burn the plants down to the ground. Milkweed plants would soon after send up new shoots. Years ago one of the major chemical companies investigated developing DEET as a herbicide but as I recall it was too expensive to manufacture and formulate and efforts to register the active ingredient were discontinued

The herbicidal action of DEET is contact and can be considered similar to any contact herbicide like paraquat, Liberty, Cobra, etc. It has limited translocation in the plant so any of the growing points not injured by the spray will develop branches and regrowth will occur. If annual plants are sufficiently covered with the spray then the plants will die but perennial plants like lawn grass, milkweed, and dandelion will grow back from perennial underground roots.
Wow...thanks Greg! I guess our overspray wasn't as direct as I assumed.
 

Rambles

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@thomas rooks, I am sorry for your loss.

I was curious about this subject, and did a quick Internet search. I found this:
...

This is good to know, and explains some of what I saw at a favorite trail head a couple of years. There was a sign about mosquitoes, and everybody would see it and spray right there if they hadn't already. Leaves and grass there always looked sick during the high-traffic part of the season.
 

Starfox

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Deet is good stuff but it will eat through your fishing waders and plastics. Got to be careful as lines get damaged by it too.

Didn't know about the plant stuff though but it's not surprising.

Sorry that happened to your trees.
 

plant_dr

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Thomas, I'm sorry again about your trees but it seems that a lot of people are learning valuable information from the experience. Maybe it will help to prevent some future incidents with someone else's trees or something.
 
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