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

[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 .

 

[taskeinc]

For my indoor plants I mist with plain water and that keeps most insects away. About once every 3 months I spray my plants, soil and leaves, thoroughly with Schultz Houseplant & Garden Insect Spray, then I go back to the misting.

 

[firelily99]

Sevin certainly gets rid of the bugs but it is highly toxic and doesn't discriminate between the good bugs and the Evil Empire of insects. Dish soap does work well as does companion planting. Many herbs are wonderful deterrents to insects if they are planted nearby, I've seen loads of posts on this site proclaiming their value and ability to repel. I won't use chemicals at all anymore, especially something like Sevin.

 

[Chuck]

My favorite is the red colored Palmalive dish soap. It will literally kill stink bugs in less than a minute, white flies instantly and spider mites in seconds. House flies die in midair. It makes me wonder if I should wash dishes with it or not.

 

[Chuck]

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.

 

[Chuck]

And I thought the EPA was bad

 

[Chuck]

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.

I only use neem oil as a last resort after everything else has failed in cases of mold, mildew and bacterial problems. It is the remedy of choice for scale insects. For normal insect pests Spinosad works great as does dish washing soap. Garlic spray works well as a deterrent and on roses a cure for thrips.. Spinosad is death on fireants

 

[ChanellG]

My favorite is the red colored Palmalive dish soap. It will literally kill stink bugs in less than a minute, white flies instantly and spider mites in seconds. House flies die in midair. It makes me wonder if I should wash dishes with it or not.

ROFLOL! I feel that way about quite a lot of things. When I make soap spray I use the most mild "clean" liquid soap I can find.

 

[Douglas Gossard]

I use neem oil mixed with soap and water. (I buy insecticidal soap (organic) and mix them up into a spray bottle. The neem gels very easily so you might have to put the spray bottle into warm water to liquefy it. It works wonders on aphids. You have to be careful because it will kill bees if you spray the flowers. I also use homemade neem oil soap bars to wash my hands. I chew tobacco and lost my tomatoes once by infecting them all with tobacco mosaic virus. (Heirlooms by the way) Now I am careful with my nasty habit....Good growing. D