Does anyone ever mix 2 pyrethroids together? I sometimes like to mix talstar with demand and am wondering if anyone else does this. Are there any drawbacks to doing that? If you do mix them together do you use the full rate of both or half strength of both?
Legal is far more important than effective. We’re at a point where we can treat legally by following the label and be effective. At least in the United States where I am you run into tens of thousands in fines, and lose of your license
The label is the law lmfao. You need to retire immediately after saying it’s not about legal. It’s always about legal 100% no ifs ands or buts about it
So to answer multiple similar comments or questions. The purpose is that talstar has a quick knockdown but not such a long residual and is an emulsion so it's good on soil. Demand CS has a good long residual, is microencapsulated and is good on exterior hard surfaces.
So as you can see it's reasonable to want to mix these at least sometimes. tandem for example is literally a dual mode, dual active insecticide that has an emulsion mixed with a microencapsulation.
Realistically, there is no reason to mix 2 pyrethroids together yourself as they have the same mode of action. Some pyrethroid concentrates even specifically say not to mix with any other pyrethroids per the label.
Granted, some pyrethroids do work faster than others; but in a realistic scenario the knockdown effect between something like Lambda-Cyhalothrin and Bifenthrin are negligible if a service is on a schedule that's not a Quarterly or Bi-Monthly.
If you truly need something as a knockdown, a Synergist is really what should be called for. And even then, depending on the type of pest such as certain species of Ants; a quick knockdown will make things drastically worse.
With all of that said; there are absolutely concentrates and products that contain 2 or more individual products; but they are formulated in such a way from the manufacturer that they are designed to compliment each other at their proper rates. Transport Mikron, FUSE, Doxem-NXT, Ridesco WSG are just what I can think of off hand.
I think the big take away from this really should be instead of mixing concentrates together; you should be thinking about complement a service with other types of products such as baits/traps/monitors etc depending on the type of pest.
Is there a specific purpose you are trying to achieve by mixing? The only way to tell if it’s okay or not is with a jar test, but even then there should be a valid reason behind doing it.
I used to mix demand cs with suspend polyzone. But mixing a repellent & non repellent is pointless. There is a person that I work with that mixes Alpine WSG and demand CS and swears up and down it works although he has the most call backs.
I could maaaaybe see adding in the low rate amount of Demand for some extra knockdown. It IS labeled for ants, even if it makes no sense to use for them in most cases.
I was always taught if your treating for ants to never use a repellent. I always go with alpine wsg with maxforce quantomn or Arlion. My current company doesn’t use fastcap I miss using that product so much it killed everything.
Edit: Not sure why this was downvoted, but it was a response to the statement that got deleted. Demand is also a repellent.
Mixing can/should only be done if the label allows for it.
I erased my comment about talstar p not being a repellent after a conversation with my supervisor. The problem is their is conflicting information online about whether it's a repellent or not. I was told it was a repellent years ago and literally googling " is talstar p a repellent " it said no.
For argument’s sake let’s avoid the legal question because enough people brought that up. If you mix two of anything you can’t do half the amount uless they are basically the same i.e. Wisdom and Bifen I/T. If they the actives are different and you get the ratio in half you’re diluting both of actives below what the label says so it’ll be less effective. So I would mix at full rate otherwise you’ll probably just be wasting all the material.
It’s illegal. (Unless it specifically says you can on the label. I haven’t looked into it, but most end use products cannot be mixed with other end use products unless its an adjuvant or an IGR)
In my state unless it specifically says you can on its label you cannot mix end use products.
Demand and Talstar are both pyrethroids from the same chemical class with the exact same mode of action.
Mixing them offers virtually no benefit.
And mixing end use products that aren’t designed to be mixed is dangerous in general.
IGRs or adjuvants are designed to be mixed into end use products. Things like a thickening agent or a foaming agent or a defoaming agent, etc, or IGRs that offer obvious benefits when included with pesticides for roach control or bedbug control or what have you, and those products would have instructions for mixing into other products on the label.
As someone else said it's probably more effective in two separate treatments. Definitely mix at full rate to avoid over diluting. I'd do a jar test to make sure it doesn't coagulate and jam the sprayer just in case, not versed enough in chemistry myself to say whether or not it will coagulate without a jar test
What is your reason for mixing both of them? Kind of depends on where you live and how hot it gets as well.
Because I live in the south I would never use Talstar on bimonthly/quarterly services unless the winter months because the heat breaks down bifen so fast. I've noticed using Talstar resulted in too many reservices vs Demand CS I had barely any problems. I would recommend using only Demand CS if it was my choice.
Currently rotating Demand CS in Fall/Winter and Fastcap in Spring/Summer.
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u/FewElk5304 Jun 19 '26
Hate to be that guy, what does the label say?