Garden chemistry
13 bottles on the shed shelf, read straight off the labels: what each is for, how well it actually works, what it can hurt — bees, cats, water, next year's seedbed — and how to store it. Grouped by job, with a signal-word badge and hazard flags on each so the dangerous ones announce themselves. Tap any bottle for the full label read.
Know before you reach for it — the cross-cutting ones
- 🔴 DANGER signal word: only 2,4-D Amine carries it (an eye-corrosion hazard on the concentrate). Everything else is CAUTION — except MSO, which is WARNING.
- 📋 Licensed use: the two structural termiticides — Taurus SC (fipronil) and Imidacloprid 2F — may legally require a certified applicator for termite work. Confirm PA rules before any foundation job.
- ❄️ Keep from freezing: the water-based Trimec lawn weed killer — a freeze can wreck the emulsion.
- 🔥 Petroleum distillates: Crossbow and Permethrin SFR — flammable-adjacent, and an aspiration hazard (never induce vomiting if swallowed).
Herbicides8 on the shelf
Plant killers. The selective ones spare grass and hit broadleaves; the ester brush-killers, the arsenical, and the residual bareground blend don't forgive mistakes.
2,4-D Amine Weed Killer
Selective broadleaf killer — dandelion, clover, thistle; spares grass.
Lawn Weed Killer with Trimec
Three-way broadleaf killer for turf you want to keep.
Crossbow Specialty Herbicide
Brush & woody-weed killer — poison ivy, blackberry, kudzu.
Drive XLR8
The crabgrass product — kills it even mature; needs MSO.
Esplanade EZ
Bareground blend — long pre-emergent + burndown, non-crop only.
Glyphosate Plus
Non-selective burndown — kills anything green, no soil residual.
MSMA 6 Plus
Arsenical last-resort for tough grasses; bermuda-only, restricted.
T-Zone SE
Four-way for the tough ones — wild violet, ground ivy, oxalis.
Adjuvant1 on the shelf
Not a pesticide — a carrier that makes the herbicide stick and absorb.
Insecticides & termiticides4 on the shelf
The bee-and-water hazards live here. Every one can kill pollinators — none belong on anything in bloom. Two are licensed-use for termite work.
Talstar P Professional
Workhorse perimeter insecticide — ants, spiders, ticks, 75+ pests.
Permethrin SFR
Broad pyrethroid — primary use is yard tick barriers.
Taurus SC
Non-repellent fipronil termiticide — soil trench + ant control.
Imidacloprid 2F Select T/I
Systemic neonic — tree/shrub pests, turf grubs, soil termites.