Not Quite As Good

If you are just starting to prepare the soil in a garden or your flowerbeds or fertilize your lawn, take some time to research products you use. Many products are knock offs of original products and just do not function as well. They can even have the same ingredients and not work the same. Why? The ingredients may be from an inferior source lacking the vitality or richness than ingredients in the original product. Sometimes it is how the ingredients are mixed or formulated that make it effective. We are aware of this in food recipes. We know how certain dishes are prepared and the freshness of ingredients has everything to do with the taste. It is the same with soil amendments and insecticides.

Perma-Guard Diatomaceous earth (DE ) is from a deposit that is the purest in the country and is mined and milled in a way that leaves it more effective than any other. Perma-Guard DE is almost bright white in color, not beige, brown or gray and is the most effective DE. The process used at the mine leaves many of the barrels of the diatom intact which is part of its effectiveness. The source is very pure and has the highest amorphous silica content. Those three things make their source DE the best for feed, soil amendments, and insecticides. Purity means less unwanted sediments and clay. Intact diatom barrels from correct milling process means the diatoms are absorbent. Amorphous silica content is supported to animals and plants.

How does the diatom barrel function in the feed of an animal? DE for animal feed is sold as an anti-caking agent. Because it is absorbent it absorbs excess moisture protecting the feed from mold and stickiness. You do not want clay or harmful sediments in the DE used for feed. The mixture of Bentonite clay and DE is too drying for an animal to ingest on a daily basis and should not be added to feed. The clay also makes it less effective for other purposes. You do want amorphous silica content to be 85 to 89 % or more.

When DE is used as an insecticide it is important for the diatom barrels to be intact to abrade the exoskeleton of an insect. If they are all smashed in the milling process or the DE contains clay it becomes less effective. Insects also avoid plants that have silica on them. In all three uses of DE the correct mixture content is important and can vary from product to product. DE is best formulated in dry environments when other ingredients are added for insecticides for even mixing. The correct mixture balance is also important. Without that balance in formulation and formulating in the correct environment it just is not as effective. Perma-Guard
formulated insecticides meet all these requirements. The formulated products are to be used as an insecticide and never added to feed or fed in any way.

When used in a soil amendment, the silica content is important, because plants that absorb silica from the soil resist drought and insects do not want to chew on the plant. The intact barrels of diatoms in DE help the soil balance moisture content. DE can assist in aeration of the soil preventing soils with high clay content from clumping and starving roots. And never, never use the DE sold for filtration such as DE for swimming pools. It has been heated to a very high temperature causing the silica to become crystalline making it dangerous to breathe, ineffective as an insecticide, deadly if ingested and totally useless to plants as that
form of silica is not available for plant root up take. Some things go by the same name and have the same ingredients but are not quite as good and even worthless for your intended purpose.

by Patricia Byrne