Flea Beetle

[PT]

Hi chantel.

Yep, that nicotine pray is very pongy stuff, but it dose work well.

Maybe you could try using yellow card, and rap cling film round it. Then when your finished you can discard the cling film. And you wont have to store a greasy card.

Peter

[Chantal]

Thanks PT, I'll give it a go.

With a bit of luck the little b******s will all have drowned we've had that much rain over the last 48 hours.

[Jude]

Had our first baby-leaf salad of the year yesterday, complete with very holey flea beetled rocket - nobody noticed, but all enjoyed, so who cares!!!

[Chantal]

I now have a packet of Navy Shag (?) in my sticky mitt thanks to Seedling and will be brewing up today I hope. I'll let you know how I get on

a) with the smell of the brew and
b) with the beetles

[seedling]

I`ve just boiled up some tobacco to make nicotine spray. The pong factor is high .(cant believe I used to smoke 20 a day)
Note to self, Chantal and anyone else thinking of making this brew. Use a very old saucpan. ( i didnt), put the kitchen fan on before you begin ( i didnt) and wear a peg on your nose ( still gagging cos i didnt)
Lets hope the flea beetle hate it as much as i do

[Chantal]

I've not started the brew yet and I don't have either a kitchen fan or an old saucepan I think I'd better leave this until a day when Tim is not due home for the evening and after I've bought one of those filter face masks from the DIY shop.

Thanks for the warning.

[seedling]

Nicotine liquid is now filtered and waiting in plastic squirty bottles. I`ll wait till it looks like its not going to rain for a bit and then go out and squirt the little b******s. By the way the saucepan has been through the dishwasher and there is no smell or evidence of tobacco left - thank god

[Allan]

If you must use nicotine couldn't you stew up some nicotine patches.
I had a go with the hosepipe yesterday, they were dying like flies on the battlefield, it was easy, cheap and clean, if they come back they will get another blast.
I've also cleaned up blackfly on runner beans the same way.
Allan

[peter]

Serious question.

Is what you guys doing actually nowadays illegal?

Like using creosote or softsoap, as it is not licenced for that use.

Silly question.
Chantal how did you get on with your Navy Shag?

[Johnboy]

Hi Peter,
It is now illegal to use Creosote but Soft Soap is perfectly legal and it in itsself is not a pesticde but generally added as an adjuvant to a pesticide.
Some organic practitioners use it to try to ward off and/or clear certain pests. Usual waste of time!

[peter]

JB, granted, poor example, but is my initial question correct?

I seem to remember that nicotine is a potent poison of humans and other animals, some recollection, that if you ate x cigarettes you would croak. Cn't remember the values of x.
Can remember it featuring in at least one detective storty, but buggered if I can remember which one, Sherlock Holmes perhaps?

[Johnboy]

Hi Peter,
To the strict letter of the law it is illegal to make your own pesticides. Nicotine is still legal.
It should be used late on in the day when the Bees are not about as it will attack then as well.
One year I grew some Smoking Tobacco and it was simply awful and I turned the whole of the crop into spray.
What i omitted to say was that I always boil my once a year effort outside on a camping stove.
I hope Seedling and Chantal can find it in their hearts to forgive me!!

[seedling]

Thanks Johnboy . You could have told me before I stank out my kitchen. I forgive you though The smell went pretty quickly and hubbie didnt comment.

[Chantal]

I'm going to have a go tonight with my Navy Shag, I can hardly wait!

Allan, I'd love to be able to blast things with a hosepipe but we are not allowed them on our site and a dribble from my watering can is unlikely to do much

[Tigger]

Forgiveness and Chantal in the same sentence JB - you've got a short memory my friend......