Bonide Systemic Insect Control, 1 lb. Ready-to-Use Granules for Long Lasting Insect Control in Lawn and Garden

A simple, effective way to shut down sap-feeding pests

The best pest control routine is the one you can stick with. After a season of battling aphids, scale, and the occasional thrips outbreak on my ornamental beds and container shrubs, I put the Bonide granules into regular rotation. They’ve since become my go-to systemic insect treatment for non-edible plants because they combine reliable results with a low-effort application.

What it is and how it works

These are ready-to-use systemic insecticide granules formulated for ornamental plants. You apply them to the soil, water them in, and the active ingredient is taken up by the roots. As it moves through the plant’s vascular system, any insect that feeds on the plant’s tissues—think aphids, mealybugs, soft scale, and some thrips—ingests the active and is controlled. That systemic action means the protection is inside the plant rather than sitting on the leaf surface, so it isn’t washed off by rain or irrigation and it keeps working for up to eight weeks.

A few important boundaries:
- Not for edible plants. Don’t use on herbs, vegetables, or fruit-bearing trees/shrubs.
- It won’t help with pests that don’t feed on plant tissues (e.g., caterpillars that chew and move on, or non-feeding nuisances). It’s also not a miticide, so don’t expect it to handle spider mites.

Setup and application

Ease of use is this product’s biggest advantage. There’s no mixing, no sprayer to clean, and no lingering odor. My routine:
1. Measure the labeled amount based on pot size or trunk diameter/plant size.
2. Evenly sprinkle the granules on the soil surface.
3. Scratch them into the top half-inch of soil so they don’t sit exposed.
4. Water thoroughly to move the active into the root zone.

For landscape shrubs and perennials, I pull back mulch, apply and incorporate into the soil, then water and replace the mulch. For container ornamentals, I apply on slightly moist soil so the granules settle in more evenly, then water until there’s a bit of runoff. I schedule reapplications on an eight-week cadence during active growing months and skip during dormancy.

Performance in the garden

• Aphids on hedges and roses: This is where the granules shine. On a barberry hedge that was producing sticky honeydew and attracting ants, I saw a noticeable drop in aphid activity within a week. New growth stayed clean for the rest of the cycle. Because the active is in the plant, protection held through frequent irrigation and summer storms.

• Soft scale on crepe myrtle and camellia: Scale can be stubborn, and contact sprays rarely penetrate the waxy coating. The systemic route is far more effective. I paired one soil application with a light horticultural oil spray to smother exposed adults. Over the next two weeks, the sootiness faded and new crawlers never gained a foothold. One treatment carried plants for about two months.

• Thrips on ornamental foliage: Thrips are notoriously mobile and can re-infest quickly. The granules knocked down feeding damage on new leaves, but I still used sticky cards for monitoring and spot-pruned the worst leaves. Expect improvement rather than instant eradication, and give it a week or two for full effect.

• Fungus gnat pressure in outdoor containers and a small greenhouse: While these granules aren’t marketed specifically for gnats, I saw a clear reduction in adult counts on sticky traps after treating containers that had gnat-larva nibbling roots. The systemic seems to help when larvae feed on treated roots, but for heavy gnat outbreaks I still like to combine with cultural fixes (letting the top inch of soil dry, bottom watering when possible) and, if needed, a biological larvicide.

Across the board, the results hold for close to eight weeks as claimed. In very fast-growing containers or after aggressive pruning, I found a shorter interval can make sense since there’s a flush of new tissue that hasn’t had time to fully load with active. As always, stick to the label and don’t exceed the reapplication frequency.

What it won’t do

• Not a contact knockdown. If you need immediate relief from clouds of aphids for a garden party tomorrow, a contact spray or a strong water blast is the instant fix; the granules need a few days to move through the plant.
• Not a cure-all for chewing pests. Leaf-chewing caterpillars and beetles that don’t ingest enough treated tissue may sail right through. Use targeted products for those.
• Not for mites. Spider mites require a miticide or a different management approach entirely.

Safety and environmental notes

Because you work the granules into soil and water them in, there’s minimal drift and very little odor—significantly less mess than foliar sprays. I still wear gloves, and I keep kids and pets away from treated areas until the granules are watered in and the surface dries.

Systemic insecticides can move into pollen and nectar on some ornamentals. To protect pollinators, I avoid using them on plants in bloom and time applications for early spring or immediately after pruning when flowers aren’t present. I also keep applications outside the drip line of pollinator-target plants and sweep any granules off hard surfaces so they don’t wash into drains.

And again: never use systemics like this on edibles. If a plant is both ornamental and occasionally snacked on (e.g., some citrus, herbs, or fruiting shrubs), choose a different control method.

Value and practicality

The 1 lb container is a useful middle ground for home landscapes: enough for several rounds on a shrub border and a collection of potted ornamentals without committing to a huge bag. The eight-week interval reduces the number of treatments per season, and not having to reapply after rain is a big time-saver compared with contact sprays. Because you’re not mixing or measuring liquids, it’s easier to keep consistent coverage across many plants.

Compared with alternatives:
- Insecticidal soap and oils: Great for light infestations and for crawlers, but coverage is everything and repeat sprays are required. The granules are far less labor-intensive and bypass the coverage problem entirely.
- Neem and other botanicals: Useful in some cases but can be finicky (phytotoxicity, odor, frequent reapplication). The granules are more predictable in my experience.
- Sticky traps and BTI for gnats: Excellent as part of an integrated approach. I use traps for monitoring regardless and will add BTI if gnats are the primary issue.

Practical tips from regular use

• Apply to moist (not saturated) soil, then water in thoroughly.
• Pull back mulch, incorporate, and replace mulch to keep granules below the surface.
• Time applications between blooms to reduce pollinator exposure.
• Pair with sanitation: prune heavily infested shoots, wash off honeydew, and manage ants that farm aphids/scale.
• Use sticky cards to track progress with thrips and gnats rather than guessing.
• Reapply on the eight-week schedule during active growth; skip in dormancy.

Final recommendation

I recommend the Bonide granules for anyone managing sap-feeding pests on ornamental plants—particularly hedges, shrubs, trees, and container ornamentals where spray coverage is tedious or unreliable. They’re easy to apply, low odor, rainfast once taken up, and they provide a dependable eight-week window of protection inside the plant where it matters. They aren’t a general-purpose fix for every pest, and they’re not appropriate for edible crops or mite problems. But for aphids, mealybugs, soft scale, and similar sap-feeders, they’ve consistently outperformed foliar-only approaches in my garden with far less maintenance. If you want set-it-and-forget-it protection in an ornamental landscape, this is a smart, efficient choice.