Homemade Insecticidal Soap – Keeping Your Garden Pest Free From Infestation
Pesticides are quite effective as taking care of garden pests. The big problem is that pesticides will basically kill all insects in an area. This becomes problematic because some insects are beneficial as their diet is insects that are pests.
An insecticidal soap is a way of making a spray that will target pests that are soft-bodied like your aphids and mites while not harming the more beneficial insects. It’s a simple and easy way of keeping your garden more pest free.
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There are two versions of the recipe.
The first is:
1 cup of water to 1 tablespoon full of dish soap.
The other is:
1 cut of water to 1 cup of vegetable oil to 1 tablespoon of dish soap.
The difference is that the vegetable oil blend tends to stay on plants longer since it’s more oily. Note that the soap can’t be the antibacterial variety.
It’s best used in a spray bottle so it mists out over the plants.
This mix works quite well for things like aphids because the soap gets stuck in their respiratory system which essentially suffocates the pest. It’s most effective when wet. That’s why some opt for the vegetable oil blend cause it also doesn’t evaporate as fast.
Many pests hide underneath the leaves of the plant so be sure to actually get the underside where most will be. If it rains right after you application, you will have to do it again. A few applications should take care of many of them.
If you aren’t sure if soap is going to hurt your plant, then you need to test. Most plants will be fine with a little bit of soap. Just spray a tiny bit on one plant and see if there is an adverse effect. Something like a fern doesn’t do that well with soap for example.
Try this cheap, easy, and effective way of killing garden pests while protecting plants and the good insects that are helpful to your garden.
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