Talstar P Professional Insecticide - Questions & Answers

Dursban was banned by the EPA around 2000-2001 because of concerns for the health of humans and wildlife. When products such as Dursban are misused or over-used by people this is often the outcome. The pest control industry has produced other products that are as effective as Dursban, but they do not have the same health risks. Talstar P, Suspend SC, Cy-kick CS are a few of the most commonly used pest control products today.

Talstar P cannot be used as a broadcast spray indoors and would not be a good choice for indoor flea control. We recommend you use Ultracide for indoor flea control. It is our recommendation and industry standard that you vacuum immediately before the application of Ultracide and every day or every other day after the application for the next two weeks. Vacuums can physically remove a decent percentage of flea eggs that are in the carpet, along with much of the organic crud that the flea larvae feed on. A critical part of the diet of the larva is dried blood, present there as fecal material from the fleas that are on the pets. Wherever the pets spend time, they will shed the fecal matter and the eggs, so it is extremely important that you focus on these potential hot spots where the pets sleep. A vacuum also will remove a small percentage of larvae, but the larva is pretty tenacious, and will wrap around the carpet fibers down there at the base of the pile, and hold on for dear life as the vacuum passes by. The pupa is even tougher to physically remove, for it uses fibers as part of its "cocoon". The vacuum will stimulate the flea adults still in their pupa form to quickly emerge as the adult, and at this point perhaps be sucked up in the vacuum. Even if they are not removed by the vacuum, at least they now are exposed and susceptible to your treatment.   After two weeks most infestations require that you do a second application of the Ultracide and continue with the vacuuming. You should use a product that is registered to use on your pets for fleas such as Frontline or Advantage. Talstar P can be used effectively outdoors for places where your pets may frequent and also moist shady areas. Treating outdoors will help prevent your pets from re-infesting your home.

Talstar P will do a great job killing insects, but it will have no effect on a mouse. It is important when setting/placing traps for mice to put the traps directly into the travel paths that mice use. If the mice are not accepting peanut butter as a bait, you will need to try something else. Cotton balls with a drop of vanilla wedged onto the bait pedal, bits of string tied to the bait pedal or other items that you have noticed that they are already eating such as pet food or bits of bread work well too.

Talstar P and Talstar One are actually the same thing. The manufacturer changed the name of the product from Talstar One to Talstar P, so that it would be more in line with the rest of their products. The P stands for Professional.

Yes, Talstar P is labeled for and known for it's efficacy for spider mite control. Please be sure to read and follow the Talstar P product label for indoor/outdoor spider mite applications.

Talstar is not actually labeled for bird mites, so there is no actual guideline for applying it for this pest.  Onslaught would be a better option and is labeled for mites in general and customers have mentioned success with it.

Talstar P is a concentrated insecticide, and you should only need 1-2 gallons of diluted solution for exterior treatments. Talstar P can be diluted 1 oz per gallon of water at its highest usage rate. You can purchase Talstar P in several different sizes 16 oz, 32 oz, 96 oz, 128 oz.

Talstar P is specifically labeled (page 4 of the product label) for a number of medically significant spiders including Black Widow, Brown Recluse and Hobo Spiders. It is important to remember that Talstar P does not give an immediate knockdown. It works over a period of several hours to kill spiders that have come into contact with the product.

You can prevent ants, flies and other insects from entering your home by applying a long lasting residual product such as Talstar. Talstar kills over 75 different insects and is safe to use indoors and outdoors, is gentle on plants, is odorless, dries clear, leaves no stains, is non-irritating to the skin, and won't break down easily with rainfall. We also suggest you use Integrated Pest Management or IPM. IPM is a step by step approach that helps you identify the pest and determine why that pest is there, and then determine how to exclude the pest in the future. Please read the IPM article to learn how to successfully stop pests before they become a problem.

There are many products on the market that have a long lasting residual. Unfortunately, all of them will only have very limited results. Stink bugs move into structures to overwinter. They usually squeeze into wall voids, false ceilings, attics and other areas that are inaccessible to people and insecticides. As the heat kicks on in the house, the stink bugs warm up and start becoming active and emerge from hiding, driving residents nuts. Because most folks usually have no idea where the bugs are harboring you can only treat around baseboards, door frames and window frames and hope the insects will emerge where you have sprayed. After they contact the treated areas, it can take several hours for them to die. It is still worth spraying now to get rid of some of the bugs, but you will keep seeing them until spring when they will emerge en masse and leave the building. They do not eat, mate or lay eggs while indoors so need to worry about any damage or future baby stink bugs. This year you can be proactive by stopping these pests before they move in for the winter. You can use Talstar P outdoors around your door frames, window frames, vents, eaves, around the bottom of your foundation, and any other crack or crevice where an insect could gain entry, once a month August-November.

Talstar Granules are not labeled for termites and would most likely not penetrate deeply enough in the soil to treat for termites. The only other granule product that can be used for termites is the Premise Granule but these granules are only for spot treating an active infestation and they do not offer any long lasting residual control. Currently non-repellent insecticides such as Termidor SC and Dominion 2L are the preferred products for termite treatments. Non-repellent insecticides cannot be avoided by termites because they cannot tell that it is there. The exposed termites then remain unaffected for a few days, before sudden death occurs. In the meantime, the exposed termites are able to spread the non-repellent chemical to unexposed termites by physical contact when they feed or groom the other termites, resulting in a domino death effect which wipes out more of the colony.

If you are indeed dealing with boxelder bugs, and what you have described does sound like boxelder bugs, then a product called Talstar P will do a great job for you. Talstar P can be sprayed directly on the plant foliage and it can be used on and in the house. We do recommend that you look up a few pictures of boxelder bugs online just to be sure they match the insect that you have spotted at your home.

Boxelder Bug Control Article

The manufacturer gives Talstar P  a shelf life of 3 years as long as you keep the top on the bottle and you do not store it in direct sunlight or in extreme temperatures.

Since Talstar is not labeled to spray on fruit trees or any other edible vegetation we really cannot offer advice on using the product for this type of application. We do have many products from Fertilome and Hi-Yield on our site that are specifically labeled for the use you have outlined. Talstar is not a systemic and it can be used outside of the dripline for your plants and trees.  Talstar is not labeled for grubs because it binds down to the soil and cannot move far enough below the surface to effect the eggs or grubs. We do have Merit Granules that can be used for grubs in your lawn.

Talstar P should be used within 3 years of the date of purchase. It is important to keep the product out of direct sunlight and extreme temperatures.

"Kudzu" bugs are a type of stink bug that is an invasive species in the south and has really started to grow as a nuisance in recent years. While there isn't really a repellent product to keep them away from your home you can use a product like Talstar P to kill the bugs that land on treated surfaces. Talstar P can be diluted at a rate of 1 oz  of product per gallon of water and applied using a hand pump sprayer on the areas that you mentioned (do not spray on top of porch railings where people place there hands frequently)

Talstar is a water based product and should not damage anything that water itself would not damage. According to the Talstar product label you should apply Talstar no more than once every 7 days. Apply as a coarse, low pressure, crack and crevice or spot spray to areas where pests hide, such as baseboards, corners, storage areas, closets, around water pipes, doors and windows, attics and eaves, behind and under refrigerators, cabinets, sinks, furnaces, stoves, the underside of shelves, drawers and similar areas. Do not use as a space spray. Pay particular attention to cracks and crevices.

Talstar P will kill ticks that are present at the time of the application and it will kill ticks that venture on to treated areas while the residual is still active. Talstars residual will last for about 4 weeks when used as directed on the product label. Talstar P is not a repellent and it will not stop ticks from coming onto your property.

Talstar P will help control adult Japanese beetles when used at a 1 fl oz per 1,000 sq ft area rate. You can mix the 1 fl oz of Talstar into 1-2 gallons of water to insure even coverage. Talstar P will not work well for control of beetle grubs or larva and is not labeled for this use. If you need to control the grubs you will need to use a product that is labeled for them such as Dylox 6.2 or Hi-Yield Grub Free Zone.

Yes. Talstar is labeled for and will help eliminate bees. To use Talstar P for carpenter bee control you should mix 1 oz of Talstar per 1 gallon of water and spray the areas where you have noticed activity such as the eaves, fascia boards, mouldings, overhangs, or siding. You should reapply the Talstar P once a month through the warm season for best results. Please note that Talstar P will not offer an instant knockdown of insects, it will take several minutes to a few hours for them to die after they come into contact with treated areas. We also recommend dusting the carpenter bee holes with a dust such as Tempo Dust to help kill any larva inside. Do not plug the holes for at least 30 days after dusting to prevent the developing larva from drilling a new whole to exit.