Safe Garden Insecticides

Following on from instructions on making manure tea and seaweed broth I thought I’d bring you a few more interesting liquids to make at home and use in your garden.

They all work out much cheaper than buying commercial pesticides and generally will be much safer too.  On the whole I don’t like using things with a million ingredients and warning instructions I don’t understand.  These recipes are far more ‘basic’ and though still toxic in some cases they feel much more healthy to be around.   Using household products, you can make yourself much more environmentally agreeable, effective garden pesticides.  Just get yourself some cheapo plant sprayers and get brewing!  Or if you’re feeling a little lazier check out the organic pesticide range at Amazon.

Soap Spray

This is a good all-round fungicide and insecticide – the main one to use on a regular basis.  Simply mix soft or liquid soap with 100 parts water before spraying.   This is the one spray we always keep in the house.  Even slugs and snails won’t like it – would you like to eat soapy vegetation?

If you want to make your own soft-soap (how very frugal of you), simply grate a bar of Marseilles or other cheap natural soap and simmer for 10 minutes in 4 litres of water.  This can be used for all sorts of cleaning (even laundry) around the house too.

Soapy water or even washing up water could be used to the same effect.  But beware of antibacterial detergents which your plants won’t like to come into contact with very often.

There are also a few variations on this theme.  By steeping garlic or chilli (powder or peppers) in the mixture you can produce a very unappetising insect deterrent of (imaginatively called) Chilli Spray or Garlic Spray.  The aim with these sprays is that the oil or soap smother the insects to breath and also make the plant distasteful to eat.

Here in the Catalan Garden we’ve had a lot of luck with garlic spray on the fruit trees during the summer to remove and deter aphids.  It does make the whole orchard area smell a bit odd though!  A word of advice from BigD is to make sure you filter these liquids or you’ll end up with a very blocked, garlicky nozzle on your plant sprayer.

All water based sprays need to be applied regularly and definitely after rain.  The easiest method is to assign an ‘insecticide day’ and always spray then.  We spray the trees on Sundays which is the day any young trees get watered.  That way we don’t forget (well, not often anyway).

Nicotine Spray

This is a very effective insecticide, good for leaf miners, weevils and caterpillars.  It isn’t particularly ‘green’ though so don’t use too much or you could end up killing off helpful predator  insects too.  Nicotine is a poison, so wash well after using and don’t leave it hanging around!  We’ve used this occasionally when the caterpillar population is getting out of hand (though netting is a better preventative).

Recipe:

• 100g cigarette ends.
• 4 litres of water.
• Boil it together, strain and bottle.
• Dilute with two parts water before spraying on affected plants.

Oil Spray

This will smother overwintering insects (scale insects and aphids in particular) and eggs on trees and shrubs really well.  Also known as fruit tree spray its great against aphids, red spider mite and mealy bugs too.

Recipe:

• 1 litre cooking oil.
• 200g soft soap.
• Boil up and mix well and bottle.
• Dilute with 20 parts water before spraying on trees.

Generally the soap based sprays are the ones used on a regular basis.  Nicotene spray is for really bad infestations and oil spray is to rid trees of overwintering insects.  Although these sprays are all far safer than most commercial products the part of any crop that will be consumed should be avoided except perhaps in the early stages of growth.  I love garlic but wouldn’t want to eat soapy, garlic flavoured tomatoes!  Don’t neglect manual insect removal.  Pinching off caterpillars is quite rewarding and pretty environmentally friendly.  You can find out more about safe garden insecticides here.

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