Organic Insecticidal Soap Recipes
Todd_In_Texas
18 years ago
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garnetmoth
18 years agolast modified: 9 years agoOrginut
18 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Confused about insecticidal soap spray
Comments (7)As a general rule, the less soap the better. ;) For what it is worth, my recipe has ALWAYS been 1 tablespoon (or less) per gallon and that is the standard recipe that often comes up for discussion here. There is no standard recipe for making it in quarts and that is where much of the confusion comes from - that and the fact that many confuse the abbreviations for teaspoon and tablespoon. Personally, I would never use anything stronger than the 1 tablespoon per gallon as even that mixture, if applied too heavily, can easily kill plants. As to the soap - plain old Ivory, when you can get it, is good, plain blue Dawn dishwashing liquid (the original) also works with no problems. But the best, IMO is Murphy's Oil Soap simply because it also contains some oil and so sticks better. So, I have often used as little as 1/4 tablespoon of Murphy's Oil Soap in 1 gallon of water effectively. If the infestation got severe for some reason I would up it to 1/2 tablespoon but never more than 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. Then just pour it into a quart sprayer if you wish but don't mix it in the quart sprayer. As with all such sprays - never in the heat of the day, never in the direct sun, lightly mist don't drench, and aim for the bugs not the plant as a whole. ;) And, if in doubt go with a commercially prepared spray. Hope this helps. Dave...See MoreHouseplant pests coming home from nurseries?
Comments (17)Morning, Everyone, Pet...AWWW, Mr. Frog sounds adorable. Yep, I'm sure the frog is used to warm areas. A FL native. Too bad you couldn't keep it as a pet... :) A. fasciatas are beautiful Broms, and will live forever, if babies are removed, placed in seperate pots. Neoregelia's are also gorgeous, but I've never had luck removing their children. Do you see babies? Is it flowering? Good luck, Pet.. PrairieMoon, The thing about lemon is, the scent deters insects, including ants, roaches and fleas..and of course, house plant bugs. Lemon won't kill bugs, however they dislike the scent. One site advised squeezing lemon juice in holes/cracks where insects hide out. lol. Lemon is used for cleaning, whitens laundry and supposely kills mold, bacteria and germs. Which is also beneficial to plants.. Listerine works like lemon..deters bugs..Optional. Before my plants are brought indoors, I add generic Listerine. Believe me, I HATE insects..plant bugs and outdoor types. Spiders, Earwigs, etc. I don't know if EW's dislike lemon and mouth wash, but spiders can't stand it..BTW, vinegar kills spiders on contact. I'd rather not use chemicals, so when a spiders get inside, I grab my vinegar bottle and spray away. Spiders roll up then died. Sorry, to all you spider lovers.:) Do you purchase plants at different nurseryes/green houses/stores? I've seen employees spray, 'surely not plain water.' A local gh has sprayers that lightly mist plants every half an hour. Ever notice residue on leaves? You can bet the residue is from insecticdes. I wash plants off ASAP. Can't stand touching chemicals. Eggs are hard spotting, especially if ones vision is not 20/20. Still, when I buy plants locally, I check upper and lower leaves, stems and near plant base. Sometimes, mold is present. You're lucky you have a room to isolate..Don't worry about proper light the first 3-days to 1-week. I've done a LOT of online ordering. 98% of the time, an info sheet is included. So far, every article I've read says the same thing. Place new plant in shade the first 3-days to 1-week. After the plant is situated, it can go in its permanent location. So, no need to worry about light while plants are isolated. Write a note to yourself reminding you to water. lol. Does 'g' stand for grin??? Cheeseclothe is a great idea, but I can't find it. lol. Can't tell you the number of sprayers gone bad when I chopped garlic and placed in mixture. Even tiny hot pepper clogged the nozzel. I had to remove cap, then wash and remove particles with a tooth pick. lol. That's the reason I now add a clove of garlic the night before spraying Still have difficulty with red pepper, 'when smaller misters are used,' but it's worth a few seconds to clean ut. To top off misting, I buy inexpensive, crushed hot pepper. .99 a bottle or two for 1.00, then sprinkle outside plants with hot pepper. Also, when I mix soils/mediums for repotting, I add Cayenne Pepper in the soil mix. lol. Prarie, we've had ants problems 4-5 years. I spray with vinegar which kills on contact. Remember ants and mealy work together. I also add 1-2 drops of dish soap in plants kept in shallow saucers w/pebbles and water. One last thing. I have 15 or so old, 'cleaned' milk and vinegar containers filled with water. So, when a plant needs a drink, water is room temp, ready to go. When containers need refilling, I add a couple drops of dish soap. Please don't think I spend a million dollars on dish soap. lol. I buy generic soap for 1.00 sold at Jewel Grocery Store. Considering the amount of soap and vinegar used, the cost isn't much....safer than Raid, etc. Prarie, when my Hoyas had mealy, I dumped every last piece of soil and pots. Once winter arrived, plants inside, mealy returned. Yep, Rhizo knows about spiders. She found a Black Window in her LR this last summer. GROSS and SCARY.. Don't like spiders, pedes, or small bees..think they're called Honey Bees..those stingers got me good one day when I turned a window-box filled with water, over another plant. I didn't know bees made a home in the drainage holes. After water was dumped, those stingers were everywhere. Other bees don't bother me. Not really. I used to be terrified of all bees, even though I was never stung. As far as spiders and pedes, I've been terrified of those long legged pests since childhood. And will to the day I'm in heaven. :) PM, Good luck. I hope thie recipe works. You may need two applications, one week apart. Toni...See MoreNon-detergent soaps for homemade insecticide
Comments (14)To be honest, I have used whatever kind of liquid dish washing soap/detergent I have on hand. We try to get Ivory dish soap just because hubby is allergic to a lot of other brands, but couldn't find it last time and the cheap stuff from Aldi works just fine. Have always had this solution work on killing bugs, and have never damaged my plants with it at the killing-bugs dilution rate. (If you double the amount of dish soap it does hurt plants, can be used to kill small weeds.) I go with about 1 Tablespoon of dish soap per quart of water in a spray bottle. I also have Murphy's Oil Soap but didn't know that I could use that, besides it is kind of pricey. I used to use this spray on some kind of worms that attacked the pine trees at my previous home almost every year, and on ants and aphids. At my current house I have used them on ants, cucumber beetles, and Mexican bean beetles/bugs in the garden. It works, and you can just spray/soak the area afterwards to get most of the soap out. No aphid problems here since I have so many lady bugs. I also don't see how a $1 bottle of dish soap that makes gazillions of quarts of bug spray (and can also be used for dish soap) doesn't blow away ANY prepared commercial product economically. Yes, I imagine you could hurt some plants if you were careless, but all you have to do is wash the plant off afterward with water anyway, so what is the big deal? I even rescue the worms I find in that area and wash them off with water, too. Marcia...See Moreplant vs animal soap for insecticidal
Comments (5)Hi, I'm actually a soapmaker so hopefully, I can help a little bit. Soap is basically oil combined with lye. They lye saponifies the oil and creates soap. You can make soap with pretty much any oil - animal and veggie oils alike. However, a good soapmaker studies the fatty acid profile of each oil (and they're all different) to come up with a soap recipe that has the qualities they want - conditioning, bubbles, cleaning, hardness etc... Commercial soaps are typically lard or beef fat (sodium lardate or sodium tallowate) and have added colors, scents, hardeners, detergents etc.... Homemade or organic soaps are typically nothing more than saponified oils - either animal fats, veggie fats or a combination of the two. They may have fragrance added but, if it's an organic soap, the fragrance will typically be in the form of essential oils. So, back to the question about fatty acids - yes, true soap, whether made from animal or vegetable does contain fatty acids, the fatty acid composition will be completely different depending upon the combination of oils used. Hope this helps! Michelle...See MoreTodd_In_Texas
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