Green Insecticide -

Cleaning out my desk, I found this from my Master Gardener Class centuries ago. It is a wonderful weapon against White Fly, Aphids, minor infestations of spider mites... It suffocates them!

1 Tablespoon dishwashing detergent (a mild kind-not ULTRA or JOY)
1 Cup vegetable oil (peanut, safflower, corn, soybean or sunflower)

When you are ready to use it, shake up the solution and mix 1 to 2 teaspoons of it into 1 cup of water and spray on area affected. Spray areas affected until the invasion is over.

This was created for vegetables... The oil may burn tender leaves of squash, cauliflower and red cabbage...but won't kill the plant.

I have used this successfully - ENJOY!!!

Carol

Thanks for posting this recipe Carol, sounds similar to something an elderly neighbor of my parents told me about years ago. I found aphids on 3 hoyas this week and need to spray. I don't like using harsh chemicals and the mixture of dish soap and veggie oil is harmless to humans and our pets, but will smother/kill those bugs!

Carol,

What is that beautiful bloom in your photo?

Lynn...you might also look for ants around your plants...they are 'farming' the aphids.

AH, that flower is a bush called Tabernaemontana diverticulata - the most incredible fragrance in the world...like spices but strongly of cloves....

Thank you Carol, I'll save the information.
Lourdes =)

Carol - I have 2 Tabs...tried to google that one and can't find any info...does it go by another name? Ok...think I found it???? Is it one of these http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/b/Apocynaceae/Tabernaemontana/divaricata/cultivar/0/

This message was edited Apr 11, 2009 11:42 PM

Carol, is this like a type of neem oil home remedy?


The only other remedy I can advise at this point is.....and thank's to Happy1.....

Add a Systemic as well.

Thank's much Carol.

Rachel

Ah Carol, my favorite flowering bush - what a wonderful smell! I have a bush at the bottom of the lanai steps, and the smell wafts throughout the house first thing in the morning. As soon as it gets a little bigger I am planing on trying some air layering - I just got to have more around the garden!

Aloha Chantell, I think the plant is also known as Crepe Jasmine???, but my plant looks exactly like Carol's, not like the one in plant files....

Jenn

Whoops! Meant to ask if the plant files have the incorrect picture, or are we wrong Carol - NAH, we couldn't be!

I'll have to go look, Jenn...but I don't think ti is called Crepe Jasmin...something like Thai Jasmin or Gardenia...or Indian Gardenia. Cheesh...where do they come up with these things. BTW...there is also a dwarf of this species... ;>)

Timely recipe! mind if I put that one in the H202 blog? I have other recipes from other members. I've been using seaweed extract and spraying as a preventative. It really works well, there is a diary of my first test from a couple years ago in that. http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/t/rjuddharrison/1923/

I was wrong...it is NOT T. diverticulata....it's "the other one" in the Plant Files

Hi Carol, is that Tabernaemontana corymbosa, Rosebay / Flower of Love?

Flower of Love probably because the Oriental Fruitfly female pheramone is exactly like something in the scent of the flower so you will often have that fruitfly all over. Do you get them, Jenn?

So what are you saying Carol? Girls smell better than Guys?

I won't argue there!

But a flower with the pseudo sex hormones of a fly... ?

Is it always the guy, that gets fooled with in this situation?

LOL!

I am thoroughly confused now as to which Tab. I have! Mine was sold to me as T. divaricata....it looks exactly like yours Carol, with the twisted petals...Funny you should mention the fruit flies - I HAVE seen a few around the blossoms but thought nothing of it as we have so many of them with all the fruit in the garden. By the way, your home made fruit traps work a dream, I have even had them trying to get into the bottles as I was standing there holding them while talking story!

So which T. do we have?...off to check out the plant files again...

Tabernaemontana corymbosa has pinwheel flowers which are very fragrant.

Tabernaemontana divaricata has salverform flowers which are often doubled. The bush looks very Gardenia-like; it is known as Crepe-Gardenia and is fragrant but not like the above plant.

I like those Tabernaemontana, but boy are they high maintenance here. Probably too hot in summer and too cold in winter.

Carol, you still have the Hoya site going? I am linking it to the part II of the virtual tour in blog posting on friday..actually I have it ready if you want to see it.
http://www.chron.com/commons/persona.html?newspaperUserId=rjudd&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3arjuddPost%3ac54c6dfa-a11d-435f-8911-77fe4b93ed34

Now...RJ - that is just too wonderful!!! Thanks!

Must go in search of Tabernaemontana corymbosa - that one I don't have.

Thanks Dave - another mystery solved - you always come up trumps!

Chantell, if you can find cormbosa it is glorious! Sorry, my plant is too small to take cuttings from as yet - maybe in the autumn...

Off to check out RJ's link!

Maybe I should go out and do some airlayering!!!!! Sounds like it will be good trade material..... eh?

It certainly would Carol!

Definately Carol! Thanks for the recipe! I think my Mom used to use something like that on her daylilies!

Jeanne

Aloha All! The old Portuguese ladies just threw their dirty dishwater on the aphid covered plants. That works, as well as my version, which is water, a squirt of dish soap with about 1% pure essential oil of orange, or lemongrass. The essential oils kill the ants, too.

Sometimes I get a potted plant that has an ant colony in it. I pull it out of the pot, spray it,and set it out on the grass somewhere. The ants will leave, and take every egg with them, usually within a days time. They hate the essential oils.

The only thing I have found that you have to be careful with when you use this solution is that you don't spray in the midday heat of a sunny tropical day, which can also cause burning of the leaves. This is because the oil may act as a magnifier of the sun's rays. We use this formula often, but have found that on smaller plants and shrubs, a stream of water often knocks off the aphids etc. without the soap solution. We were having trouble with aphids on our dwarf orange tree. They were sucking the life out of the blossoms and tender new shoots, and the soap solution was leaving a bit of a sticky mess. By spraying off the aphids several days in a row (not hard enough to dislodge the blossoms), we were able to fend off the bugs until fruit began to form. At that point the aphids left it alone. Obviously this would not work with an orchard or a very large tree.