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| liquid.(Peppermint Liquid Soap)
I mixed about 2 and half tablespoons in 32 ounces of water in a spray bottle. Took my watering hose around and wet the ground around my squash. Got numerous stink bugs to come up and sun and then I spayed them with soap and I moved on. About 45 minutes later I was walking by and saw dead stink bugs. That was fast, much faster result than I expected. Now. Does this have a negative effect on the soil food web? I just dowsed the bugs but of course got some on the plants and around the base of the plants. INGREDIENTS:
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Any soap is useful for, and recommended by the CDC, NIH, and FDA, washing your hands to kill the disease pathogens (bacterial and viral) on them, so any soap could kill off soil bacteria in the right amounts. Your soils Soil Food Web should be large enough that the small amount of Insecticidal Soap you did spray will not adversly affect them too much. You can be sure that IS is not as harmful to your SFW as most of the synthetic pesticides would be. |
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| Thanks for your observations, gnhelton. Many people use their own recipes for insecticidal soap (kimmsr included) and yours is presented with a recommended dose, at least. It is also worth mentioning that you are using a true soap in your recipe, rather than a detergent. Loved the picture! |
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- Posted by VictoriaElizabeth none (My Page) on Wed, Jun 13, 12 at 10:59
| I love Dr. Bronners for everything... But like an idiot, a few years ago, I used the Peppermint on kale/chard/collard greens for a multitude of bugs. Even though it was HIGHLY diluted, EVERYTHING tasted like peppermint soap. Peppermint-soap soup, peppermint-soap sautéed kale and garlic, peppermint-soap kaleslaw... you get the idea. What I learned: anything you eat the leaves of, do not spray with something they will absorb the flavor of!! |
Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden
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| Another benefit of any soap that gets on your soil is that it improves water absorption. If you use a concentration that is too strong, you could burn plant leaves though. That's why the various recipes seem so dilute. The reason insecticidal soaps work is the same reason it improves your soil absorption. Soap breaks the surface tension of water droplets. Insects have a coating that causes water to roll off. Otherwise they'd easily drown. (Their breathing organs are a bunch of tiny holes along the sides of their bodies.) So soap breaks the water tension and allows the water to coat their bodies, and they drown. It's especially effective on soft-bodied insects like aphids and squash bugs. (Beetles, not so much, though yes for grubs.) |
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