Pesticides are a pain to use, and they tend to kill more than you want. Our family never has had much, so the thing was to do maximize the yield most efficiently.
Monitor is a restricted use Category 1 pesticide. Word has it it’s parent was a nerve agent developed by the Nazi’s.We used it to kill green peach aphids on potatoes. Green peach aphids don’t survive east Idaho winters, but they get blown in from the Boise area every year. They carry a leafroll virus that cuts down yields in potatoes. Too much disease and you can’t sell your spuds for seed. Plus it causes a brown ring in the spud. Perhaps you have seen a potato chip with a brown ring? Bingo. It won’t hurt you. It just doesn’t make the chip as appealing, especially in a marketing sense.
Is the imidicloprid Marathon by chance? I’m not as familiar with it.
Pretty sure the only things he uses are Malathion and Sevin.
But, then again, he would stop at nothing to save his garden. :-)
Yes, I get the brown stuff in chips. When I peel them, I cut it all out, another ick.
No imidicloprid is in a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids and totally different from malathion which is what I think you meant. I might try Sevin again since I still have it but not suit up as carefully; guy at the nursery says he's been spraying it for over 30 years.
The LAT article is still up, well worth the read for both gardeners and farmers.