Have more pears than ever and need to purchase a chemical suit for applying fungicide and pesticide. The chemical suit I’ve seen is inexpensive and seems like a great thing to use. What are your thoughts? What about respirator, gloves, goggles etc.? I was thinking about something better than the basic one like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00821JE4W/ref=mp_s_a_1_3/167-5406053-2925825?ie=UTF8&qid=1473768458&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=chemical+suit+with+respirator&dpPl=1&dpID=31aLOoe-NWL&ref=plSrch
Research the MSDS and labels for the products you intend to apply, they will outline the required protective equipment for those products. All those things you have listed are good to have.
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Look here… http://www.amleo.com/Search.aspx?ss=COVERALLS and they are TYVEK also and much less expensive. This is only source of many -
Google “Tyvek coveralls” and you will get all types & weights and costs\ from disposables to muti-use. place.
se… Google
RESIRATORS: This is the one I use with replaceable filter cartridges for different chem types. They are readily available even at Home depot & Lowes for $30.00 - $50.00
Mike
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How often do you replace the filters in your regulator?
I’m old school, you need the helmet too!
http://onlinemilitaria.net/products/1395-UK-P44-Lightweight-Respirators/
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As a long time commercial applicator who had an oops many years ago, buy the highest quality respirator you can find, replace the cartridges frequently, and make sure you use it every time you spray. Did I say change the cartridges frequently?
I was spraying Thiram(insecticide) when my cartridges failed/clogged. Just barely got out of the field. I tried to get the one, last use from those charcoal cartridges, turned out it was almost the last use.
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I just hold my breath.
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Wonder what the neighbors would say if they saw me walking out of the orchard in this…
Mike
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Check ebay for Tychem and Tyvek suits, I just bought 6 Tychem suits for $30 including shipping, unlike Tyvek the Tychem suits don’t breathe, they also have taped heat sealed seams, etc. and come in a variety of duribility / resistance levels.
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I like the Tyvek coveralls with the built in hood. They are a lot easier to get on and off if they are a little bit “too large”. You may not always need the hood, but its nice to have when you need it. Some materials like lime sulfur or captan can cause eye injury and a full face respirator will keep the stuff out of your eyes. The downside is that they tend to fog up. The coveralls with the hood and the full face respirator makes a good combination when the wind shifts and the spray drifts into your face!
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Yes, that is funny, and my previous post was a joke! My neighbors looked at me strange with the modern gear. I use old clothes and just wash them. But those suits look nice. My wife can get full hazmat suits. I was thinking it would be a good costume for a Halloween party!
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Having started with using mostly organic sprays, including Surround and sulfur, it is really easy to tell just how much spray can get on you if you aren’t careful. Surround really makes that abundantly clear.
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The thing is, if you simply follow the label instructions and try to spray when there isn’t too much wind, I really don’t see what the fuss is about. If full time farmers pull mist blowers with open tractors all day during the growing season living in a pesticide fog and live much longer and healthier lives than the non farming citizens of their states (I can show you the data), maybe you should be more concerned with other aspects of your lifestyle than a little amateur level of exposure to pesticides.
They simply aren’t as dangerous as the media cracks them up to be, IMO, and based on research I’ve seen. Happy to share the data if anyone is interested.
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I believe it depends a lot on what material you spray and where you spray it. I’m not phobic about chemicals, but I use protection. I sprayed Lorsban - a moderately toxic organophosphate which is under review by the EPA yesterday. I sprayed the bottom of the trunks of my peach trees with a hand wand and a flood jet nozzle. No spray suit, just a respirator, gloves, long pants and long sleeve shirt. Very little potential for drift due to the large particle size from the nozzle and the low height of the spray.
When I spray with an air blast sprayer or even with a hand wand at a high pressure to get the spray 20 feet into the trees, I cover up with a spray suit including a hood and full face respirator. It might be a little over kill, but it makes me feel better.
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Thank you for the suggestions. In Kansas there is always wind for the most part. We use a lot of fungicides eg. captan , herbicides, pesticides etc. and other chemicals. Starting this next year to use some nastier chemicals than I have historically. What about a mask like this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000P18N4Y?#Ask ? Gloves something like these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000BZ8K4M/ref=mp_s_a_1_2/154-9602235-2359436?ie=UTF8&qid=1473839596&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=chemical+gloves&dpPl=1&dpID=41yn7Z4rIhL&ref=plSrch ? I know it might be considered overkill but at some point isn’t it cheaper to purchase the full suit rated for pesticide https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CMXCESO/ref=mp_s_a_1_6/154-9602235-2359436?ie=UTF8&qid=1473840014&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=chemical+suit+hazmat&dpPl=1&dpID=41OtEIi98wL&ref=plSrch
I think the best thing to use for most of the materials we use is a thick cotton jump suit with a gortex lined, wide brimmed hat. Tyvek causes your body to overheat doing warm month spraying and for most materials thick cotton is just as effective.
If a label doesn’t call for a respirator I no longer wear one because it makes me a little dizzy and I don’t think as clearly. Goggles also tend to fog up to where I can’t see where the drift is going, they even cut down of visibility when they aren’t foggy and if I can see the spray I can avoid it. So I often put on goggles and wind up pulling them above my eyes if they are interfering with my ability to see what I’m doing.
Spraying Lorsban at the base of trees with a handsprayer? Let’s keep a sense of perspective here. Try pulling a mist blower with an open tractor on a still day going back and forth on a field. Tens of thousands of people who do this for a living should show some actual consequences health-wise when their medical histories (including farmers of all ages) are evaluated for over a decade and compared with the general public.
I don’t wear a face mask for this, I just breath in between the three seconds it takes to spray the base of each tree- exhale a bit before you take in a breath.
The main thing is to be careful when you mix. That’s when it makes sense to me to wear a face mask (and strictly keeping the goggles on). The diluted poison poses much lower hazard- whatever the hazards are.
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The only thing that I really protect for is, when I spray Agrimycin. I wear
long pants and long sleeves, hat, sunglasses and a respirator, and I
shower immediately afterwards. You don’t mess around with that stuff. I also wear the respirator, when I’m mixing it too. When I spray fungicides, all I wear is shorts, and T shirt, and sunglasses. For insecticides, the same thing, except I wear the respirator.
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So Kansas had a 25 mph wind all day so I picked cherries in a hurry all day waiting to spray. The timing worked out perfect. My cherries were safe to spray since I removed the fruit. Finally it was calm enough to spray tonight just as I picked the last gallon. Without a suit I would have been soaked in chemical from random wind gusts during the calm so it was a wise investment. Could not wait any longer the cherries were starting to defoliate. Once cherries bloomed this spring I stopped spraying to keep my juice chemical free so I’ve been really pushing it to wait until after harvest. 
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And then there are the farmers pulling a mist blower in an open tractor living in a pesticide fog for much of the growing season.
I think I’d rather take a chance wearing thick cotton rather than plastic (a cotton coverall is often advised for typical agricultural chemicals). I used to use tyvek, but why suffer the discomfort when any fabric should keep those windblown shots off your skin. I figure if somehow I have a loading accident I can always strip and wash immediately. Bout the only way I could see that happening is if a spray hose burst right next to me. Odds are mighty slim of that happening if you replace aging hoses.
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Alan I really liked this tonight. I don’t plan to dress like that all the time but on a day like today it was wonderful. I was spraying 3 or 4 times a heavy stream and the wind came up and put it back on my mask. I was using 3 fungicides mixed so I was glad to be wearing that mask. One of the chemicals was captan. I don’t want any chemical on my skin but definitely don’t want captan on my face and eyes.
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