What did you use?

Please remove all of the plants from your home immediately. If you used a product that was not intended for indoor use, then you could be putting yourself and everyone else in a very unhealthy situation.

The odor is directly related to the chemical. If your are smelling it, you are inhaling toxic chemicals. Depending upon the chemical, it might not go away for months.

I encourage you to contact me directly by email (see MY PAGE) and I may even give you my phone number. I want to know the precise chemical (brand name and everything) that you used. But, first, get those plant out of your house!

If you used the granules that are specifically sold for use with houseplants....you're to mix it into the top of the soil, and the smell dissipates fairly rapidly.

I used them a couple of times on a few plants...the smell was horrible, and I used a mask (and held my breath!) and gloves so that I wouldn't touch it!

It's scary stuff....I haven't used it since.

If you haven't already....air out your house, and if the product you used isn't intended for indoor use....do follow rhizo's advice!

Hello -

Thanks for taking an interest in my problem. The Systemic I used was: "Bonide Systemic Houseplant Insect Control". The bottle label reads: Contains 1% Di-Syston. (Disulfoton 1%)

The precautions on the bottle say to avoid contact with skin, swallowing and breathing in dust. Nothing mentioned about fumes or even about how to administer in a room (open windows, etc) The smell is noxious - I swear its emitting a gas (although it does seem to be lessening ever so slightly as the days go on).

Thanks again...

Judging by what comes up when I googled Disulfoton, I'm going to second rhizo's alarm. It's not supposed to be particularly volatile, so I'm not sure how you're smelling it so strongly (not doubting that you are, just puzzled by the discrepancy: how much did you use?), but whatever. It's not one of the nicer ones. If you have a place out of the house you can move the plants to, move them. If you don't, either change the soil completely or discard the plants. If you decide to change the soil, it might not be a bad idea to have a second person there while you do it, and have a phone handy.

The early signs of human toxicity are blurred vision, fatigue, headache, dizziness, sweating, tearing, and salivation, and it gets worse from there. Disulfoton is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, which means that it mostly affects the nervous system (all nerve gases are ACh inhibitors, though not all ACh inhibitors are nerve gases), so it's not to be messed around with. Some people are genetically much more susceptible to ACh inhibitors than others, so it's possible that you're one of those people and that's why you're having a stronger reaction than you "ought to."

None of this should be cause for panic. (Panic is never helpful anyway.) You need good air to breathe, so get the plants elsewhere for the night. You need to do something more permanent about the soil eventually, so make plans to change it or dump the plants. Make sure you have someone else around when you do whatever you decide to do, so you don't have to worry about being able to get emergency help if you should need it. And all this will be settled back to normal in a week.

nanw_4wi -

Would you mind elaborating a bit on your experience with the pesticide granules? I have a few questions for you:

1. How long was "fairly rapidly"? (How long did the smell last for you? Hours, days or weeks?)

2. After the initial application and watering, did the smell come back each time you watered the plants for a while?

I've aired out the room each day and the smell fades a little, but then comes back with a vengence each night when I close the room up again. I am wondering if the pesticide is still emitting the chemical that is creating the odor.

Thanks again for your interest and information...

This was a few years ago, so to the best of my recollection, it was just a few hours.
I scraped around the topsoil before I added the stuff, and added a bit of soil to the top after adding the granules.
Did you mix it into the soil or simply add it to the top?

I could 'vaguely' smell it after watering one or two of the plants for perhaps a week, but only in the immediate vicinity of the plant itself. It didn't permeate my room as it is yours.

I think the key is getting it mixed well into your soil.

I use this all time in my greenhouse and never noticed it. I had to go out and get my new jug to see if it smells it didnt. I use Bonide Systemic Granules. Is this what you are talking about?

when all my houseplants go outside for summer... or the windows are open all summer in a sunroom ..

i would treat all my plants.. outdoors.. a few weeks BEFORE they came back in the house... so i could insure that the plants came in CLEAN ... and any residual smell was long gone. ..

indoors plants were taken outside to FULL SHADE and also treated once a year...

there is nothing worse.. than an insect infestation in a closed up house in winter in snow country.. lol ..

way back when... the year i started this system.. i had an outbreak of tiny flies of some kind.. maybe white flies or something.. i dont recall... the plant stand was in the tv room.. i could barely watch the redwings.. lol.. with the old tvs.. i could not see the puck zipping around for all the flies.. lol ..

ken