Question about using Murphy's Oil Soap for borers?

17 years ago

Ã Hi Everyone, Somewhere on the internet I read a artical about someone who used a mixture of Murph'y oil soap and water, sprayed on irises to control or repell the iris borer. They talked about how the taste or smell or both seemed to control or repell the borers. I can not rememeber where I saw this. Is anyone familiar with this article or has anyone tried this method?

I need to know how much soap to how much water. I would like to try this for myself. Thanks for any help. Ã

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Comments (6)

thurston
17 years ago
This is on the Schreiners site:

Fortunately, we do not have Iris borers in the west. However, the Iris borer can pose a very difficult problem in the Midwest and along the east coast. They hatch in the spring and chew into the leaves, leaving chew marks on the margins of the leaves. They then bore down through the leaf, leaving long wet looking streaks on the leaves. Once they get into the rhizomes, they gorge themselves. What they don't eat then can rot.

First, always maintain a clean garden. If you see the borers in the leaves, simply squash them. We recommend using the insecticide Cygon 2-E. Spray in two week intervals from about the time the tulips bloom through mid-summer. A 10% solution of Murphy's Oil Soap (one part soap for every nine parts water) can be used as an organic alternative to Cygon.

Neil
laurief_gw
17 years ago
Although I've never tried it personally so can't comment from experience, I'm having a very difficult time believing that Murphy's would do much of anything to reduce borer populations or activity in an iris planting.

It is my understanding that Cygon 2-E has been banned in the U.S. and will no longer be available once current stock is sold out.

The best chemical option I know for borer control is imidacloprid (Merit) applied in very early spring before temps reach 70 degrees. It would have no effect on borers applied this late in the season, however.

Laurie
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I've been using and posting this recipe for many years - no complaints or issues to date: Start with a pint of very hot water in a 1 qt spritzer bottle. Then add a tsp of cold-pressed, pure neem oil and few drops of Murphy's Oil Soap (or non-antibacterial dishsoap). Shake well. Add a pint of 70% rubbing alcohol. Shake again and spritz. Make sure to cover all surfaces, especially the underside of leaves and leaf axils (crotches). Shake frequently to keep the blend emulsified. Spray at 2 week intervals. Use it all or discard any remaining when you've finished spraying. Al
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The sub-pic with the most circled are of feeder roots an Atlantic Giant pumpkin puts out at each node if buried or touching the soil... the vine was repositioned and the roots got exposed/uncovered... the pic's a little blurry but it goes to show they even laid eggs on the roots! The top sectional pic, three circled, is a vein/rib on the underside of a leaf. Your question about just sacrificing the leaf: The leaf stem is hollow, they get inside and head downward to the base of the stalk and will try boring into the vine. Don't believe what you hear about they aim for the first 3 feet of the vine! On an AG pumpkin, I've even found eggs on the yet-to-unfurl ends of vines at 20+ feet from the stump. The new growth with all the "to-be" vines at the end is "tender vittles" to them--softer & easier to bore into. And the leaf underside vein/rib [on that AG pumpkin] was about 24-30" above the ground. The right sectional pic with 1 egg on the stalk was up about 5-6 inches from the ground. There are maybe 2 possible ways to use the floating row cover successfully. 1. Use a plastic or heavy fabric weed barrier over the ground with the hole for the plant relatively small and in a different area than previous years PLUS use a floating row cover or screen over the plant, completely sealed along the edges, and hand pollinate when flowers are seen and immediately recover/reseal. The weed barrier would prevent them from emerging from the soil under the row cover, and if the stump hole or slit in the weed barrier is small and in a different location they may never find the opening--kinda like a person falling thru the ice in a lake and getting disoriented where the hole is if a current moves you further away. 2. Maybe silly or too much work would be to use row cover cut into long strips (like a roll of it 3-5" wide) and wrap it around the vine as it grows, kinda like you'd wrap electrical tape around a wire or wiring harness, always overlapping. You can do this on leaf stalks too, but it all seems like too much work, plus may constrict the plant's growth as the vine thickens. In theory, doesn't sound bad, but in reality, nearly impossible to do. Others say use tin foil and just form it around the vine. I don't think any kind of direct contact cloth or foil is really practical--they may just move to a different part of the plant not covered completely. AG growers often cover the vines with soil about an inch or more deep... it provides extra rooting areas too..but you still have to worry about exposed stalks & leaves, plus you must insure you're not burying a part of the vine that already has eggs deposited. Mark
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thurston
17 years ago
Here's a different article I found. Have no idea if it works, but I can remember my grandmother always having a bottle of Murphy's around.

Neil

Murphy's Oil Soap and Iris Borers
Taken from AIS Region 18 Bulletin -- Spring 2000
Michael Gullo
West Walworth, New York
(This article was recently on Iris-Talk and originally printed in the January 1998 AIS bulletin)

I first heard about the Murphy's Oil Soap method of borer control in the January 1998 AIS Bulletin. The title of this article was "Sand and Soap" written by Marie Gebert. In the article she presented the following advice: "use a mixture of one half cup of Murphy's Oil Soap to one gallon of water. Spray on the iris leaves weekly (or after a rain) from early May to late July. This should be used after any other sprays."
I use the soap that comes in the refill bottles not that which comes in the spray bottles which is already diluted. I feel that a thorough garden cleanup (very later fall or very early spring) is also very important to make borer control even more effective. I have been using this method of borer control for the past two seasons with great success.
I only find a very small number of borers that manage to survive the spraying, which I promptly squish. One could probably combine the oil soap treatment and beneficial nematodes (alternate sprayings) and achieve even more complete protection. With just two sprayings last season I only found a dozen or so borers.

Marie, in her article, mentions that she and others in her area (northeastern Connecticut) have been using it to great effort for five seasons (as of 1998). I don't believe in using harsh chemical treatments to control pests or other problems, so Murphy's Oil Soap has been quite a help. Your climate will dictate how early you need to start spraying. Some years the first of May is early enough, but lately here I have needed to start even earlier, usually mid to late April. If you wait till the borers hatch then it will be too late, at least to stop the early ones.
I won't use harsh chemicals, but for those who do I would suggest trying a test plot for the Murphy's to see if it is as effective as chemical treatments. I know of a number of people who use chemicals like Cygon only out of desperation.
laurief_gw
17 years ago
I wouldn't use Cygon because it is far too toxic for me to risk exposing either my 4-legged family or myself to it. The only reason I use Merit is because the active ingredient, imidacloprid, is the same active ingredient used in Advantage Pet Flea Control products. If it's safe enough to be applied directly to an animal's skin without deleterious effects, I figure it's about as safe as any chemical is likely to be in the garden.

"A dozen or so borers" is a dozen or so more than I want feeding, maturing, and breeding in my iris beds.

Laurie
northerner_on
17 years ago
Hello 'twin two':
I came to this forum looking for information on Iris borer. There is another thread about this with more detailed information from people who have actually treated infections. You may find it helpful. I think it's called Help Iris Borer.
Northener.
coleus23
15 years ago
I would like to know if i can use murphy's oil soap on sprider mites.?

Question about using Murphy's Oil Soap for borers?

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