Organic Pesticide

http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202279...reId=10051&N=5yc1v&R=202279709#specifications

Active Ingredients:
Rosemary Oil ……………………………………….. 0.25%
Peppermint Oil ………………………………………0.25%
Thyme Oil …………………………………………….. 0.25%
Clove Oil ………………………………………………. 0.25%
Other Ingredients*………………………………. 99.00%
Total …………………………………………………. 100.00%
*Water, Mineral Oil (USP), Octadecenoic Acid Potassium


j

 

Check my signature out for an even cheaper version of the store bought remedy jerry posted....He's offering a hint, by displaying the ingredients.

 

Add some garlic and hot sauce to that recipe and it can double as a marinade.

 

Garlic and hot sauce would make the pesticide more effective as well

 

Jerry,
I figured you would ve said neem. Im glad nobody said spinosad. Its not for outdoor use. It is death to bees.

 

Botanical teas:

Ginger
Fennel
Rosemary
Lavender
Peppermint
Spearmint
Peppers

All kinds of things...

I use my neem silica with a peppermint tea, the trick is consistency, every second or third day even if you don't see anything. I use this spray, especially if I don't have pest problems.

 

My cousin always used Dave's Insanity Sauce as her bug spray. Just a couple drops on a spray bottle is enough. I've always worried how these things might effect the flavor of the plant. The flavor is a big part of my enjoyment and the benefit I get from smoking for some reason. The turpines probably. So I don't want to mess that up at all. I need to do some experimenting with small plants. Maybe my autos.

 

Honestly, I've never had an issue with spider mites. I've had them a few times but barely an issue at all.

Although I've had pest issues with bugs that some have never even encountered before lol.

SD

 

Sean, you're a lucky guy, I wonder if it has something to do with location. Those suckers (no pun intended) will suck the life out your plants quickly.

I have noticed though, that plant health means alot in reference to whether they will attack or not - I've seen them on one plant only, but not on the healthy plants around them. They will definitely go for the weakest plant first.

Irie, you're absolutely right about Spinosad and bees, and so it should not be used outdoors unless absolutely necessary - always look for an alternative first. The only time I do use it myself is on a flowering plant - and then only if necessary of course. Any vegging plants up to several weeks into flower will get organic neem/silica/aloe but I'd really like to play more with oils such as the ones referenced above.

Still, we must be careful even with essential oils - use only small amounts in your sprays.

One of my most aggravating pests is Japanese Beetles. Last year I planted several different peach trees and my God did these little suckers almost ruin me. There is no "miracle spray for them like there is for many pests. We can try and attack the larvae grubs in the soil but they do of course fly in from elsewhere. The only real solution is to adamantly pick them off and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. Irritating. Some folks will put up other distracting plants nearby such as pole beans which they love in the hopes that the beetles will go to the pole bean instead of my peaches but either way it's a tough gig. They have the traps you can buy with the pheromone in it to attract them and trap them but the traps will attract even more beetles - what a no-win situation.

Ideas are welcome and appreciated...

J

Edit: don't get me wrong, organic neem will help and I will be using it as an anti-feedant for the beetles coupled with hand picking them off, but if anyone has any other ideas I'm open to them. I just don't know if there are any.

Thanks. J

 

Location could be a factor. I mean I've had S mites but not huge issues with them (knock on wood).

And plant health yes does make a huge difference in pest resistance. Anything could be factors to the plants "health" though. Not enough root space, or just being in a pot at all. I wonder if anyone has noticed any difference in pest resistance between conventional pots and smart pots?

Then there's simply pest resistance in the genes of the particular plant. I've had pests just mauling the heck out of a plant, and another one right next to it is kickin back chillin on a lazy river lol.

SD

 

Jerry


you can suggest to any not-very-well-liked neighbor to use the japanese beetle traps & proclaim how well they work


or, if you dont have any neighbors, placing the pheremone traps about 1/8th-1/4 of a mile away from where you are trying to rid the bugs from helps to take them away from where you dont want them to be.


fermented neem & karanja also helps keep them away a little bit, as im sure you have tried the combination and found sub-par results.


japanese beetles are most definitely a piss off.




after using spinosad today from a problem i recently encountered, i had an epiphany.


if we are trying to go organic, why buy any type of insect control that comes from a bottle? certainly there has to be some type of chemical used in the process of making the pesticide, as even spinosad requires an REI at some greenhouses (usually differs from grower to grower). with the exception of neem and karanja, i think its time to really look into biological control methods.


today i was watering my girls, and after i moved a plant i saw a few aphids crawling around on the ground. i wanted to disbelieve it at first.....but sure enough, the one plant that hasnt been drinking as much water as the rest (but is still growing quite uniformly compared to the others) had a root medium full of brown aphids. some of the mature aphids appear brown with a green abdomen. there had to have been about 200 aphids on the surface of the soil before i flushed it with spinosad.


strange thing is some living leaves were touching the soil of the pot and the aphids want nothing to do with the green leaves


anyways, about 5 hours later, the population i observed earlier only decreased by about >1/2.



and thats when it hit me - why depend on chemicals to take care of my problem? why not depend on something living - just how i prefer my soil in the first place.




so i have some beneficial nematodes on the way, as well as Aphidoletes aphidimyza. the beneficial nematodes work as parasites, while the larvae of the predatory Aphidoletes wasp can consume up to 65 aphids per day (at 100 eggs laid per female wasp on average, thats pretty fucking awesome). if i see populations are still increasing, i will have to overnight Aphidius matricariae to finish the job off. these parasitic wasps for aphids are the cadillac and Aphidoletes is the chevy, just google image search "parasitized aphids" and you will see what i mean. (Link to biological controls)


so screw the spinosad; i dont want to kill anything beneficial. i mean, isnt that what weve been learning all along?




here are a few pictures of the aphids, some may call them "root aphids." what do i call them? DEAD!

 

Metarhizium anisopliae

aka Met 52


theres also Beauveria bassiana

aka BotaniGuard ES

ive never had much luck with the botaniguard, though....never tried Met52, but that type of fungi looks much more promising than Beauveria


good video! kinda scares me that some antibiotics are losing their effectiveness

 

true, but there is a much larger ratio of people whom wish to destroy these habitats (deforestation for agriculture, property development, construction supplies, etc.) and that's what scares me.

 

Osub, I did try predator mites at one point (long - long time ago) and had absolutely no luck at all. In fact, I hated that I wasted the 3 days to get them shipped, becoming even more infested during that time.

I'd love to hear how you make out with the aphids - please let me know.

I've also been reading on using predators for my Japanese a beetle problem, while they are still in the grub stage in the ground. Then I ask myself if the amount of predators I'll be able to buy will stay localized enough to help me with my fruit trees...

I think I'm going to be doing ALOT of hand picking...

J