Bifen IT - Questions & Answers

Bifen IT is great product for perimeter control. The label recommends using it at a rate of 0.5 oz per gallon of water and it can be reapplied every 30 days. If you’ve been using it for a long time and no longer getting results, you can rotate to a different product, like Demand CS. If you are seeing activity indoors, you can spray on baseboards, cracks and crevices. You may also want to apply a dust into the wall voids like Delta Dust.  We would recommend reading over our Getting Rid of Earwigs article for further tips and information.

Bifen IT is a good choice for bagworm control.  The product label recommends mixing at the rate of 1 oz per 1000 sq ft in approximately 1 gallon of water. Bifen XTS is an oil-based insecticide that is only for outdoor use, while Bifen IT is water-based and has a broader label.  However, it is important to start control methods before infestation occurs. Once the bagworms have matured and have formed the "bag" most chemical control methods will no longer work.

Once the bags have formed, you can manually control bagworms by simply plucking them off of the infested trees and dropping them into a bucket of soapy water or squishing them.  

 

Bifen IT can take several minutes or longer to kill a listed pest that contacts the treated surfaces. It  is mixed at 1 fl oz per gallon of water per  1,000 sq ft monthly to the exterior areas and quarterly to the interior crevices. Eliminating springtails can take time. Springtails indicate that there is a moisture issue because they breed in walls or under slabs where a moisture issue may exist.  Typically, pesticides alone will not take care of a springtail problem.  It is required to fix whatever moisture issue is causing the problem.  You should read our "How To Get Rid of Springtails" article for further information.

Bifen IT can be applied 1 fl oz per gallon of water per 1,000 sq ft monthly outside the home and every 3 months inside the cracks and crevices.

Bifen IT is recommended to use once every 30 days outside for Mosquito control. Depending on the weather conditions(rainfall), this could affect your results. For best results, allow 24 hours after outdoor application before expected rainfall or watering. When applying, focus on the underside of leaves on bushes, shrubs and trees as this where mosquitos will hide during the day. For a quick knockdown mixing a Pyrethrin concentrate with the Bifen IT will give you immediate relief. Mix 1oz ExciteR and 1oz Bifen IT in 1 gallong of water. With this combination, you get the quick knockdown and the residual for 30 days. Mixing Bifen IT at the lower mixing rated of .33floz you can apply higher volumes to ensure application of the proper amount of product to a given area or you can mix Bifen IT at the higher rate of 1oz per gallon of water for a longer residual and a quicker knockdown. If there are areas where there is standing water, using the BTI Mosquito Dunks will help.

Bifen IT is not designed to kill on contact and even when you spray an insect directly it can take several minutes or longer to kill it.  It will help to kill the ones that contact a treated surface as well as their food source, but how long it takes to kill after application depends on age and health of the insect, how long after application they contact the treated surface and how long they spend on the treated surface.  Spiders themselves are harder to kill as they do not groom themselves and have the long legs to keep themselves off the ground and in more contact with a treated surface.  We have a great guide here for treating spiders that might also help. If you are going to be spraying spiders directly each time, you could add a product like ExciteR to Bifen to give it a faster initial knockdown only.

The Cy Kick CS you have been using is a great product for Scorpions but we do understand the need for more cost effective options. You want to go with a product that will sit on top of the surface better than the Bifen IT. If you dont have any dark surfaces to treat, you could use a product like Cyper WP. It is a wettable powder you would mix with water and spray in the same manor you would the Cy Kick CS. A 1lb jar will yield 24-48 gallons of mixed solution depending on the mix ratio you use. If you do have dark surfaces to treat and you are worried about a visible residue, you could swap to something like Equil Lambda 9.7. The problem with treating for scorpions is they are so difficult to kill that it requires a higher dose of chemical per gallon with most products, and a wider area you have to cover. There is not going to be an huge difference in price between many of the products as they all use roughly the same amounts. The Onslaught FastCap Spider and Scorpion Insecticide is a newer product that is supposed to give a better/faster knock down and a longer residual. It may be worth it to try this product as it will give you a few more gallons of solution than the Cy Kick and you may have to spray less often.