Thanks for your question.  For me to fashion an answer, I need some more information. For the Bonide product were these granules or was it a spray?  If possible, could you take a picture of the product label that was on the container and send to us.  The reason why I need this information is because a variety of neonicotinoids exist, each one of which would have different lifetimes within the cuttings that you made.  These different lifetimes means that maybe your cuttings will be safe for insect pollinators or maybe they won't.

Thanks for consulting us.  I'll look forward to your response.





Thanks for your responses. I now feel reasonably confident that I can provide accurate and, hopefully, useful information to you. I commend you for having a concern regarding systemic insecticides. Our pollinator insect friends should also thank you!!

The quick answer to your question is that systemic insecticides applied to plants can end up in cuttings from that plant. Additionally, the systemic insecticide in these cuttings can show up in the resulting flowers and then, unfortunately, in pollinators that might visit these flowers.

Based upon the information you provided, I’m pretty sure that you used a product called “Bonide Systemic Houseplant Insect Control”. Its active ingredient is imidacloprid. This is a neonicotinoid insecticide. The original container most likely had this insecticide at a concentration of 0.22%. It is widely used for control of aphids, whiteflies, scale, and mealybugs on house plants. These pests may or may not have been present on your indoor plants.

Unfortunately, imidacloprid is one of the longer-lasting neonicotinoids. It can persist in plant tissues for up to six months after its application to the plant. Since I suspect you made your cuttings less than six months ago, imidacloprid is highly likely still to be present in an active form in your cuttings after they are transplanted.

Going forward at this point, you could just discard all your cuttings. Then make replacement cuttings from plants that have not been exposed to neonicotinoids. This would be a rather drastic move that would certainly slow things down for your 2026 growing season.

Instead, let me provide an alternative. The threat for pollinators from cuttings that you transplant outside only arises if the cuttings produce flowers. You seemed to realize this judging from your question. For this reason, after transplanting your cuttings outside remove all emerging flower buds once they appear and before any flowers emerge. This would require constant vigilance on your part. Of course, the major disadvantage is that you may not have flower gardens but only foliage gardens in 2026. This may or may not be acceptable to you. If you would be transplanting mainly perennial cuttings, this alternative would not be quite as dismal.

For your information and from the sites that I have indicated below, I have compiled three lists of certain plants showing systemic insecticide persistence for transplants. For example, a timeline of 4-8 weeks means that once new foliage starts to appear on the transplant, you should remove flower buds for a period of 4 to 8 weeks.

Short timeline (2 – 4 weeks): petunia, coleus, basil and other herbs, zinnia, impatiens, marigold

Intermediate timeline (4 – 8 weeks): geranium (Pelargonium), begonia (wax, tuberous), chrysanthemum, tomato, pepper, fuchsia

Long timeline (8 – 12 weeks): Hibiscus (especially woody types), Citrus (lemon, lime, etc.), Jasmine, woody ornamentals (small shrubs), succulents.

Note that some of your intended transplants are mentioned in these lists.

See the following for further information on these and related points:

https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/imidagen.html

https://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=6677

https://yardandgarden.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/neonicotinoid-insecticides

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid?utm_source=chatgpt.com

If you would like me to research plants other than those you mentioned in your question, let me know what plants these might be. I may be able to dig up information about them.

Good luck. Thanks for consulting us. Please get back to me if you have any further, related questions.