A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems homemade pest control sprays?

what are some homemade pest control sprays that you all use for succulent plants? I know 50%ammonia 50% water in a sprayer bottle works well to kill slugs... I want to be ready for spring

found a webstie with some good ways to make your own pesticides alot from your own garden, http://mygreendream.wordpress.com/organic-pest-control/ But still I want to know what you all do too but what interested me was about the lemon rose spray!

Hi toposh!
I didn't know 50% ammonia and water could kill slugs. Great info, thanks!

Thanks for the live link on organic pest control concoctions too.

I'm all for organic for sure! Several months back, I purchased lady bugs for my garden and it really worked too. They eat aphids and a few other things that really did help my plants.

Maybe someone can tell you about the lemon rose spray you mentioned.

Be careful, that ammonia spray can also kill your plants.

heres the recipe for that lemon spray from that website for killing aphids on roses

"My favorite aphid fighter is a citrus spray; one of my worst pest problems has been aphids. You will need 1 pint of boiling water and the rind from one lemon (or should you have lemon essential oil a few drops in tepid water). Steep the peel in water and then strain before pouring into a spray bottle. I sprayed my roses just once last summer and didn’t have a problem for the rest of the season."

Sounds good toposh. Thanks for the recipe. Wondering if can use your recipe for aphids on other plants besides roses.

well first of all using ammonia is NOT organic under the federal guidelines of organic. It is currently being sold as an herbicide in some products as a more "environmental" approach. It is not in any pesticides because of concerns of damaging plant material.

As far as homemade products go... household products are not manufactured to be used on plant leaves, so they are not tested on them. You never know how these products are going to impact your plants or the environment. One classic example was a study done looking at using ivory soap against insecticidal soap on tomatoes for pest control. they found the plants treating with ivory actually produced fewer tomatoes. They don't know why but there was something in the ivory that made the plant produce less fruit. House soaps and insecticidal soaps have different carbon chain lengths in them... making them very different.

Insecticidal soaps and oils have been tested and are very inexpensive to use and there are soooooo many on the market these days. Many are approved for use in organic production. Just look for the OMRI logo and then you know its safe for organics.

Yes I know ammonia is not organic but like with its use on succulent plants such as petunias the plant converts it to nitrogen using it as a fertilizer...

oh and one other thing....

If you are going to release ladybugs you need to ask where the ladybugs are coming from. Most some suppliers sell ladybird beetles that have been "harvested" from natural winter aggregation sites. This means ladybugs in the western United States after feeding head up into the mountains by the millions to spend the “off season” in huge hibernating masses. These are usually the convergent lady beetles, Hippodamia convergens. Collectors come along and scoop up the hibernating ladybugs and shipped them out for release. Once released they usually migrate before feeding or laying eggs, providing little or no control for your target pest. Another concern is harvested ladybugs may be parasitized by a small wasp, Perilitus coccinellae. It develops as an internal parasite of lady beetles and kills them. Harvesting from the wild is also not environmentally sustainable.

So i never recommend ladybugs as a biocontrol agents with my customers, if anything I would use lacewing larva or something like Predalure to attack native beneficials in.

yes.. but for this forum discussion though is just covered pest controls.. so i just covered that angle.