FAQs
POISON IVY
What’s wrong with my plants?
Call or email us for a free evaluation with an organic plant care specialist. You can also always request a visit via your customer portal.
Some common issues can be diagnosed via photo/video while others will require an on-site inspection. You’ll receive a proposal with treatment options and other important recommendations.
A happy plant in healthy soil will thrive and can defend itself against common stressors like pest infestation and disease. However in the imperfect ecosystems of our backyards, some of these factors are out of balance.
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“Big picture” factors like proper sun/shade, drainage, soil conditions, weather, and physical/mechanical damage all greatly impact a plant’s health and ability to thrive.
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Damage caused by the feeding and breeding of insects, mites, and deer can spread beyond acceptable thresholds quickly, especially in the case of invasive species. Opportunistic pests cause infestations when a viable host plant enters a stressed state.
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Bacterial and fungal diseases are ever-present in the air, water, and soil. In the “right” circumstances, they may come in contact with your plant and infect it, causing any number of health issues.
If you notice unusual coloring, stunted growth, excessive leaf/needle loss, or other abnormalities on any of your trees and shrubs, they may be in a stressed state. This is when they become most vulnerable to compounding health issues and can decline without treatment. Contact us today.
Isn’t spraying bad for the environment, my family & our pets?
Our commitment to the organic approach means we will never use toxic synthetic chemical pesticides at your home.
Traditional plant care practices fail to prioritize the well-being of our loved ones and our environment. We love our families and our environment so we abandoned those harmful methods and adopted the organic way.
Our organic applications are targeted treatments designed to treat a specific pest or disease issue while mindfully reducing our impact to other living things in your ecosystem. Unlike the traditional plant care practice to “bomb everything” we aim to leave nature’s balance as in tact as possible, only intervening when necessary.
The products used in our applications are approved by NOFA, the leading research and certification arm of organic landcare in agriculture and arboriculture. More info on our organic products can be found here.
The organic approach is about more than just using reduced-risk products, however. It’s about striving for sustainability in our methods and ultimately healing our poisoned soils with restorative, regenerative practices. More information on our organic approach can be found here.
When is my treatment scheduled?
Our applications are carefully timed for maximum efficacy. You’ll receive a notification via email or phone in advance of any service visits.
TREATMENT WINDOW
Once we are within the proper date range for your particular treatment, your job is added to our work schedule. Notifications are sent one business day before any application, allowing for a three-day window unless otherwise specified. This three-day window is necessary since our scheduled routes may require changes based on fluctuating weather conditions, mechanical breakdowns, or other unexpected delays like road closures. If your job was skipped for any of these reasons, we’ll be back ASAP (more on skipped visits here).
LET US IN
After you receive notification of a scheduled treatment please make sure to make your property accessible to our crew. We will knock at the door and get to work, you don’t need to do a thing if you’ve already prepared:
unlock gates or provide codes/keys (we will close them upon exit)
keep pets indoors during the service and about an hour after while plants dry
pause or delay irrigation if necessary - ok to resume at least an hour after treatment
*Our products will not harm anything on your property other than the bugs/disease we’re targeting, however some homeowners choose to move/cover cars or lawn furniture.
SCHEDULING CONFLICTS
If you have other work crews scheduled for painting, roofing, driveway sealing, landscaping, or any other outdoor activities the same day as an upcoming service please let us know so we can re-schedule. Although our applications are organic and do not pose a health threat, we’ve noticed that other workers still don’t like to be sprayed!
Visit your customer portal to double-check which of your services have been scheduled (dates subject to change). Here you can also check in on other proposals, message us or request a visit from our specialists.
Was my application skipped?
Maybe. There are some reasons your scheduled application may get skipped.* In these cases we delay invoicing and re-schedule ASAP.
However first-time customers are often surprised at our low-profile treatments and mistakenly report that “nobody came but I was invoiced” or “the crew came and left without doing anything”. Please contact us if you need to double-check if and when an application was actually completed. We track our crews’ progress remotely, and can confirm location and times of treatments with few exceptions.
Often if you weren’t home at the time of the application, there will be almost no evidence your treatment has taken place except for some small stick-signs placed at the edge of your property we are obligated to leave. Our crews are environmentalists trained to “leave no trace”, to reduce impact to any plants/trees not targeted for treatment. Certain spray applications leave a noticeable, natural smell but even this can be subtle depending on weather conditions. If in doubt, contact us.
*Some examples of why an application may be re-scheduled:
rain/temperature/wind conditions become unsuitable
pets are outside with nobody home
irrigation is actively interfering
other work crews are already working
mechanical breakdown
road is inaccessible
wet paint/sealer, etc.
What if it rains after my service?
If there is rainfall after your application before your plants are able to dry off from our treatment, contact us for a free re-spray.
We do our best to anticipate weather conditions that are unsuitable for our spray services (rainy, too hot/cold, too windy) but these factors are unpredictable. For most services, as long as our treatment has time to dry before rainfall (about an hour), there’s no problem, the application was a success. Compost tea applications are totally OK to do in the rain. In any other cases, please call us to check if you’ll need a re-spray. We’re happy to re-schedule.
Does organic tick control actually work?
Yes! But not the exactly same way that traditional chemical pesticides do. The important thing to understand is that no matter what treatment you choose, our organic method or others’ chemical-based approach: THERE IS NO TREATMENT THAT RIDS YOU OF TICKS 100%.
Always be aware of tick-risky areas and check yourself and pets for ticks regardless of your spray program.
ORGANIC VS. TRADITIONAL TICK TREATMENT
Traditional chemical tick treatments do a great job at killing ticks AND unfortunately everything else - including beneficial bugs like pollinators and garden-guarding bugs. Our organic cedar oil treatments target ticks, fleas, and mosquitos without the broad-spectrum “kill ‘em all” effect.
Traditional treatments have a strong kill-on-contact effect but offer zero residual control after the application. Tick re-population begins immediately. Organic treatments have a slightly lower contact-kill rate (80%-85% vs. chemicals’ 90%-95%) however our organic application provides a resistance effect to re-population for 2-3 weeks after each service.
How often do I need tick sprays?
Property-to-property, family-to-family, conditions and needs are different. We offer a variety of solutions, contact us for an assessment and personalized recommendations.
More and more Long Island home-owners are seeing the importance of regular tick control applications. For this reason we offer a FULL CONTROL year-round service package. Some folks are only on Long Island seasonally or only outdoors during spring and summer. For these situations, we offer a SEASONAL CONTROL package, as well as completely customizable packages that range from a few sprays a year up to bi-weekly. For individual and package pricing, call or email us today.
What if I have a full spray program yet still need more tick control?
Ask us about Tick Plus. It’s an organic way to boost efficacy without adding more sprays.
Tick Plus is not a substitute for our organic cedar oil applications but an additive for highly infested areas.
What is compost tea? How is it different than traditional fertilizers?
We do not use traditional chemical-based fertilizers. While those fertilizers do force growth, they also actually kill organic living microbes in the soil that are necessary for long-term health. Instead, our team of soil scientists brew small-batch, top-quality vermicompost-based teas teeming with life to support a healthy community of microbes that are essential to the soil-food web. Healthy soil means healthy plants. Your plants get a healthy boost AND the soil gets flooded with beneficial microbes.
More about compost tea and the soil-food-web here.
Why is the Poison Ivy back after a spray treatment?
Our commitment to using products that are organic, not synthetic toxic chemicals, means we avoid using harmful herbicides like Roundup. That product kills every part of the targeted plant, like poison ivy, however it also kills much more than that and persists in the soil for decades, yikes!
Our organic solution is an organic herbicide that is effective yet requires multiple treatments, timed out over weeks. That means after the first application, you may notice more poison ivy spring up. This is not a mistake! We need those new leaves to emerge enough for a second treatment. Sometimes a third is necessary. With some patience, this organic approach works and there is no leftover harmful toxic chemical residue!