Bifen IT - Questions & Answers

Bifen IT can be sprayed onto and into the shakes to provide some relief from the silverfish. Be sure to use the highest usage rate of 1 oz of Bifen IT per gallon of water for the fastest knockdown and the longest lasting residual. You will need to reapply once a month to keep up the barrier.

Bifen IT would be a good choice for tick control. We would recommend the liquid formulation for tick control because you can spray it on tall grasses and bushes where ticks are known to harbor (it is recommended that you spray the entire areas where ticks are known to harbor including the grass). Once Bifen IT is dry it is safe for the dogs to return to the treated area. Once dried, Bifen IT will not reconstitute so there is no need to worry about rain making it unsafe. The very small amount of diluted product a dog might eat if they ate some of the treated grass would be so minimal that it would simply pass through their system without causing any issues.

Bifen IT insecticide is comparable to the very popular Talstar, but is much less expensive. Bifen IT provides excellent control of over 75 insect pests, leaves a long-lasting residual for up to 3 months indoors and one moth outdoors, is odorless, non-staining, dries clear and is safe around children and pets when used as directed.  Bifen IT and the other bifenthrin products can be used both indoors and outdoors, on lawns and ornamentals, and even in the kitchen. Be sure to keep pets out of the treated area until it has a chance to fully dry. Once completely dry, Bifen IT is completely safe for your pets.

Bifen IT is a great residual product, but just like any other insecticide, its not going to hold up long term to the environment. Most will give an outdoor residual of at least 30 days, and depending on how much UV rays break it down and rain you get, will determine whether it will last closer to 60 or 90 days. You can treat all the areas you mentioned with the Bifen for almost every insect. If you are looking to treat wood decks for wood destroying insects you would use a product like Boracare and then seal/stain the wood afterwards to keep it in. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

With insecticides you are typically going to only use 1 gallon of water per 1000 sq/ft so you would set the hose end sprayer to 1 ounce to have it distribute at 1 ounce per gallon. You do not dilute the bifen when putting it in the chamber on the hose end sprayer, you put the concentrate directly in the cannister and the tube automatically sucks up however much you have told it to on the dial and disperses it with each gallon that comes through the hose. The down side to using a hose end sprayer is it removes a lot of accuracy with your treatment and wont give you as thorough and even coverage as a hand pump or backpack sprayer would. Either sprayer you use, you will use 1 ounce per gallon of water.

Bifen IT can be applied 1 fl oz per gallon of water per 1,000 sq ft monthly outside the home and every 3 months inside the cracks and crevices.

Bifen IT will kill Cicada Killers that come into contact with treated areas for a sufficient amount of time to receive a lethal dose. It is labeled for non-edible trees and shrubs. You will need to dilute 1 fl oz of Bifen IT per gallon of water and broadcast spray over the areas where you have noticed activity. Most folks notice only very limited results from broadcast sprays of insecticides for cicada killers because they don't land and walk around for a long enough time before entering their underground burrow. Please read below for the most effective treatment method:

Cicada Killer wasps thrive in disturbed environments, such as landscaped yards and places where bare soil is exposed. You can discourage the wasps from nesting in your yard by cutting your grass on the highest setting and by adding a thick layer of mulch to flower beds during the Cicada Killer Wasp season. These wasps do not like over saturated lawns either, so over watering during their season will help prevent them. Unfortunately, there is no fool proof way to prevent cicada killer wasps. For prevention, you can try to use a granular insecticide such as Talstar PL  Granules in the couple of weeks before this pest is known to emerge. For current infestations, you would need to use Delta dust in each individual burrow.

We also like to let our customers know that the Cicada Killer wasps are beneficial insects that provide free pest control for a couple months each year. Cicada killer wasps paralyze and provision their burrows with other insects to feed their young.  The beneficial Cicada killer wasps, while large and intimidating to see, are mostly harmless and there have been very few reports of anyone getting stung by just being near them. In most cases where a sting was reported, the wasps were being held or molested in some way. Cicada Killer Wasp stings are also reported to be almost painless.

There is no valid reason to mix synthetic pyrethroids such as Bifen IT and Onslaught Fastcap together.  This would not make either product work better or produce better results.  However, it could make treated areas repellent to bugs, lessening the effectiveness of the treatment.  Neither product can do its job of killing insects if the insects are avoiding the treated areas.

Bifenthrin products used to be considered a good form of termite treatment, but bifenthrin acts as a repellent and now a days almost all professional termite companies are using non-repellents, such as Termidor SC or Dominion 2L.  We have a great article called How To Do A Termite Treatment that explains how to perform a treatment using a non-repellent termiticide.

Yes, you can mix an insecticide like BIfen IT and a fungicide together in the same tank as long as niether product label prohibits such mixtures. Be sure always to follow the more restrictive product label and to plan your dilution rates correctly for each product in the volume of water you are using. We suggest a small jar test before mixing a large amount of products together for the first time.