Anyone have any experience outdoors with this? I’ve seen a few articles that say you can wet it and use a surfacant to spray it on as well. Anyone ever do this? If so, what would the proper mixture be?
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I have never used it outside, I did use some 18 months ago after another fungus gnat outbreak. I put a quarter inch all over the top of my pots.
It sucked all the water from the soil underneath, and turned into a soggy goo that stuck to anything that touched it.
After a week the top started to go Brown and it looked like a giant lemon meringue pie, with a weed plant sticking out the middle of it lmao.
I have read it’s good to put in soil as it holds a lot of water, and slowly releases it. As well as deter pests when dry.
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I’m desperately trying to kill a pincher bug apocalypse. Organic and safer products don’t kill hard bodied bugs. Just read that DE kills bees too. Exactly what I am trying to avoid. Against all odds, malathion may be in my near future. sigh
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Here I have a lot of snails that devoures my plants, so I use it a lot to put barriers and also powdering slightly the leaves. I think they are like crystals as they say it "serves as a non-poisonous natural pesticide, especially in organic farming: the ingestion of silica particles causes lesions in the digestive tract; the fixation on the body of the insects also causes injuries that imply their death by dehydration."
You can put it over the soil in your pots, if you do so you should water from the bottom. I think it won’t harm bees as they don’t normally walk in the leaves or in the soil, good luck … 
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This isn’t a problem in anything in pots unless they are too close to the ground. Mostly it’s for my veggies and flowers
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Then you should powder the leaves and veggies (anything that crawls or eat them dies), not the flowers and in the soil surroundings of your veggies and pots so no one could cross them and then tell about it 
, it is also a good nutrient for the plants and no poisonous for humans …
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I may end up with nothing but tomatoes this year after all of my hard work. They have killed most of my marigolds, all of my lemon basil, my dahlias, nasturtiums. They are working on my sunflower seedlings, cantaloupe, gourds, zinnias and seemingly everything except the tiny bit of lavender, cosmos, peppers and sweet peas. They even munched a few baby mj leaves so far. I’m just devastated.
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That’s a pain, I didn’t realize they ate seedlings, thought it was just dead rotten wood and mulch.
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roots and leaves as well 
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I don’t see how it would affect the bees unless they crawl on it. My brother spreads it across his yard as tick control and it works to keep them at bay for a year or two between coatings.
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I’ll try and avoid getting any dust on the actual flowers themselves, but I live by the ocean. Lately there have been really high winds and there is almost always a breeze even if it’s slight.
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Watering right after putting it down is probably best practices. You probably already know but be super careful not to breath in any diatomaceous earth, it’s effectively powdered glass.
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Be careful of breathing it in as well. The food grade stuff is low in crystalline silica, and non toxic, but the filter grade stuff (like for a pool water filter) is toxic to humans. Never used it on plants, but there was a bed bug outbreak in my home town a few years ago and a couple friends used it to treat their houses. Thank God we never got em!
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I live in the Midwest and my folks have fought the good fight against pincher bugs, we call the earwigs.
I remember dad putting borax down around plants to kill’em. I don’t know if it was straight borax or a mix though…
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Apparently, some websites say you can make a slurry and spray it. Of course it doesn’t work until it dries. Says this may be the easiest way when you have large spaces in direct sun like my vegetable garden. On the other hand they say it can easily wash away and to keep it dry. This is so conflicting! Obviously my garden needs to be watered every few days, so I’m confused by all of this.
DE will not inflict damage when wet.
Exactly! So what exactly is the point of using it in a vegetable garden? Will it just keep drying up then kill bugs overnight or what? My point is how in the hell do you keep it dry? Plants need to be watered. lol
Basicly when animal or insects receive heavy damage they lay up and stop eating or drinking water.
So the work is done after the duster application. Then the dying process takes over. You also have to know the life cycle of target.
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So basically put it out there when it’s dry in between waterings and wait awhile. Then apply again in a few weeks?
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