Is dish soap really a deterrent or just a detergent? i've been using 7 dust

[Karen May Jones]

Friends have been telling me to water down some dish soap and spray it on my plants to keep bugs from eating them. I did not get to try this out, I just moved into this house in January, and the first garden season was a bust for me . I have a canister of seven dust that I used on my three Jalepeno plants (thats all the garden I had before moving). It worked well, but it is poison! I would like to know if anyone here has actually tried dish soap as a bug spray in the garden. Did it work? Does it affect the taste of the food?

 

[maddie]

Yes, dish soap is a good pesticide.. I spray my plants with a few drops (about 5-6) of dish liquid, and a few drops of olive oil mixed into 2 liters of water. This keeps away all pests. Plants in containers do not seem to take very well to a more concentrated solution. Some of my plants have died due to that earlier.

 

[ChanellG]

I was told that making a spray from garlic is also useful. It's something I had intended to read up on more. I have a few minuscule bugs flitting around my indoor plants, but they don't seem to be doing any harm for now. I have some liquid castille soap I am thinking of using, but I need to get a spray bottle.

 

[Karen May Jones]

Yes, dish soap is a good pesticide.. I spray my plants with a few drops (about 5-6) of dish liquid, and a few drops of olive oil mixed into 2 liters of water. This keeps away all pests. Plants in containers do not seem to take very well to a more concentrated solution. Some of my plants have died due to that earlier.

Wow, I'm glad you told me to only use a few drops. I probably would have used a lot more! Is there a particular brand that works well? What about scented dish soaps? Would scented dish soaps attract the bugs and then kill them, or is the soap actually just a repellent more than a killer?

@ChannellG Thank you for the info on garlic. I am sort of sensitive to garlic myself. Especially the pure garlic powder - working in a pizza parlor had me exposed to high quantities at times, which made me uncomfortable (breathing). Please let us know how it does for you if you get a chance to experiment with it. Thanks!

 

[maddie]

Karen any dish soap will work. Dish soap kills existent bugs. Regular spraying of plants that are prone to bugs keeps them away. Hope this helps.
@ Channel, I don't like the smell of garlic on my plants. I however think that garlic is strong and could burn plants. I am not so sure.. that is only my guess.
Neem oil (just a couple of drops) in water is another excellent natural pest control formula. I use this for my vegetables if needed. This also has a strong smell and cannot be used inside your home.

 

[ChanellG]

Maddie, someone recommended neem oil to me once for combating an ant problem. I am not sure where I could find it here. My mother used to make some kind of garden spray with pepper, and it may have had garlic as well as a drop of soap. I have a book someplace that discusses using essential oils in the garden as well. Some things seem to work best with certain plants; it's good we can all get together online and compare notes.

 

[zigs]

We're not allowed to use it in the EU

No unapproved pesticides or herbicides.

 

[ChanellG]

We're not allowed to use it in the EU

No unapproved pesticides or herbicides.

You can't use your own natural homemade remedies? How would anyone even know?

Do you plant aromatic herbs to help control pests? I know that is allowed.

 

[maddie]

Maddie, someone recommended neem oil to me once for combating an ant problem. I am not sure where I could find it here. My mother used to make some kind of garden spray with pepper, and it may have had garlic as well as a drop of soap. I have a book someplace that discusses using essential oils in the garden as well. Some things seem to work best with certain plants; it's good we can all get together online and compare notes.

It is very common to use neem oil for all kinds of pests. It is natural and does not harm the environment like chemicals do. Neem oil and neem leaves are medicinal. Diabetics even eat the tender leaves. It is an excellent way to get rid of worms in the guts.

 

[zigs]

Not if its not been tested, even if its been used for ages. They are trying to stitch us up so that we have to buy things from the chemical companies.

On a forum, we can't be seen to be encouraging people to do something illegal, although one of our government ministers has said its highly unlikely that they will prosecute anyone for it.

So I guess we just do what the french do, say yeah, yeah to the EU & then just carry on as usual

We're not allowed to feed our chickens left over food from the kitchen either, its great being in the EU

Detterents are allowed, its only something that would kill a plant or pest.

 

[ChanellG]

Not if its not been tested, even if its been used for ages. They are trying to stitch us up so that we have to buy things from the chemical companies...

Detterents are allowed, its only something that would kill a plant or pest.

Wow! Is this for everyone or are you producing food at a commercial level? I could see having the rules and regulations for anyone who wanted to sell what they produced, but for a home gardener it just seems ridiculous.

There is a lot of controversy going on now in some areas of the states where people are trying to have mini farms on the front lawn, which apparently it's illegal to have food instead of grass in front of your house.

It is very common to use neem oil for all kinds of pests. It is natural and does not harm the environment like chemicals do. Neem oil and neem leaves are medicinal. Diabetics even eat the tender leaves. It is an excellent way to get rid of worms in the guts.

I'm not sure if I can get neem here, but my friend's family is from India so she might know. It might be a good thing to grow if I can manage it (and it isn't restricted).

 

[zigs]

I saw a news report of a Lady in the States and a veg plot in the front garden, ridiculous if you think about how skint everyone is at the moment.

We've got some similar covenents on housing estates over here, when the council owned the houses it was grass only at the front, but most of the back gardens were big enough to grow food in.

I'm just a normal gardener, not commercial. Everyone here is getting fed up of how much control Brussels has over the UK, the latest thing is Bordeaux mixture, its being outlawed for home use.

Its the only decent thing to protect against potato blight, which has wiped out most of our Potatoes & Tomatoes this year. I've been stockpiling it.

 

[ChanellG]

I'd never heard of Bordeaux Mixture so I had to go an look it up. What is the objection to it? Does it contribute to some kind of ecological problem?

 

[zigs]

Sorry, I should have said, its a copper based fungicide that sits on the surface of the plants. Before you eat the tomatoes, you simply wash it off.

The governments excuse was that gardeners might use too much.

Now most veg growers over here will try to garden organically, this is about the only chemical I use. We also have a service called Blightwatch, where you get an email/text message when the conditions for blight are right in our area, so we know when to spray & when not to.

No one wants to use too much of a chemical, thats just throwing money away.

They also banned Sulphur, also used as a fungicide(which I don't use) but they got round that by selling it purely as a soil conditioner. Madness.

 

[maddie]

I'm not sure if I can get neem here, but my friend's family is from India so she might know. It might be a good thing to grow if I can manage it (and it isn't restricted).

Neem is a huge tree.. about sixty feet in height and grows in warm climes. You will definitely get neem oil in Indian stores.. if you look for it... Yes.. your friend might know.

@Zigs.. it does seem like there is too much control over your everyday life... It must be difficult at times, I guess.

 

[ChanellG]

@Zigs, I guess you just have to be creative, though as far as I am concerned, as long as I am not using chemicals or anything that would be potentially harmful, the government should stick to more important matters.

@Maddie, is it possible to make a tea from the dried neem leaves? Unless I had a plant, it probably would be difficult to get fresh ones. I would imagine you could grow a tree for a time and just control the size. That is as long as you had the space to do so.

 

[zigs]

Seen talk of Neem oil, but not used it myself.

Us Brits are used to getting round things from outside, we got a history of being invaded & new folk telling us what to do. We just take the best and ignore the rest

The French don't like us as they invaded 1000 years ago, tried to make us speak French. We just assimilated them & carried on.

Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

 

[Lanie]

I love your last comment Zigs, it made me giggle. Dish soap is a deterrent for sure. Here in Canada we call it Safe Soap. In the summer I dump all of my used dish water on the ant hills in my yard and sure enough, within a week the ants are moving their home to a more tolerable location. Works like a charm every time.

 

[zigs]

Insects don't have lungs, they breathe thru their skin so the soap forms a film over them & they suffocate. Thats interesting about the ants Lanie, we've got a huge nest of big ants at one end of the house, they spend all summer going back & forth to the pine trees at the other end.

They tried a shortcut thru the toilet once, the spiders had a field day. They soon gave that up as a bad idea.

 

[JaimieSkye]

I use Dawn dishsoap and water for any bug problems. We got an overload of box elder bugs in the front of the house. I didn't want to spray any kind of chemicals there because I have rose bushes and daylilies there. Also, my kids like to play there. We spent a few days spraying the bugs with Dawn and water a few times a day and they were gone. I have tried it on my tomato plants too. It didn't do a thing for the squash bugs I got this year though. I'll have to remember Neem oil. I have heard really good things about that, but never remember it when I need to .