This year for the first time ever I have an infestation of Whitefly in my greenhouse.... Having spent the week spraying with every homebrew that I know of (except milk as I haven't found any non-homogenised yet) I think the time has come to resort to the Nicotine option.
I discovered yesterday that, far from hating garlic, the blighters have now evolved with immunity to it.... To the extent that they were overwintering in the garlic plants I had left in there for protection!
Johnboy (long time since we last communicated!) could you let me have the recipe.... And does it work with "fresh" baccy...... I have some cigs still lurking in a drawer from 5 years ago when I stopped smoking.
Don't know if you still have my E-mail address as not sure of legal status of your homebrew............
Trust you are still hale and hearty...
X Mo
Whitefly - JB's Special Spray
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Tony Hague
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To avoid any confusion: the legal status of home-brewed pesticides is that they aren't.
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PLUMPUDDING
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I've seen the legal problem avoided by saying it is illegal to make your own pesticides in this country, but in - say Africa - they do this .... Then it is up to you what you do with the info. - not that I advocate breaking the law!
Ah but Tony, JB has always been a law unto himself!
Agreed PP, People in some countries have very innovative ways of using basic products to produce cheap and effective cures, remedies, pesticides, etc....... Luckily they report their findings on the Internet..... In Africa (and elsewhere I understand) there has been great success in the battle against tomato blight using a simple milk and water solution..... Who would have believed it!
I did accidentally spill some of my afternoon milk over a tomato plant while I was in the greenhouse........
Agreed PP, People in some countries have very innovative ways of using basic products to produce cheap and effective cures, remedies, pesticides, etc....... Luckily they report their findings on the Internet..... In Africa (and elsewhere I understand) there has been great success in the battle against tomato blight using a simple milk and water solution..... Who would have believed it!
I did accidentally spill some of my afternoon milk over a tomato plant while I was in the greenhouse........
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alan refail
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Hi Maureen
I'm afraid you will not have a reply from Johnboy for a while. He is presently enjoying an extended and well-deserved holiday in SW France.
If you search his posts you will find plenty of his comments on nicotine. However, I don't advise the use of nicotine on or near any solanaceae (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines etc) - if you scroll down this link you will come to nicotine and comments on possible tobacco mosaic virus.
http://www.comfycountrycreations.com/bugspray.htm
I'm afraid you will not have a reply from Johnboy for a while. He is presently enjoying an extended and well-deserved holiday in SW France.
If you search his posts you will find plenty of his comments on nicotine. However, I don't advise the use of nicotine on or near any solanaceae (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines etc) - if you scroll down this link you will come to nicotine and comments on possible tobacco mosaic virus.
http://www.comfycountrycreations.com/bugspray.htm
Thank you Alan.... I hope he is having a brilliant time....... Maybe I will catch up with him when he returns...... I've sort of missed his grumpiness!
And thank you also for that link which is full to bursting with great information..... I do remember now the connection between tobacco and the mosaic virus but it had passed from my memory into the deep recesses of my brains' operating system..... Retrieval from there is slow, painful and not always reliable.
I've got some old chili powder that has passed its sell-by so will try the "hot dust" now..... It should stick nicely after today's garlic/soap/oil and nettle spray.....
Meanwhile I've also seen Eucalyptus oil mentioned somewhere.... And buying some Pyrethrum seeds seems to be a good idea.
Many thanks for your help Alan.
Mo
And thank you also for that link which is full to bursting with great information..... I do remember now the connection between tobacco and the mosaic virus but it had passed from my memory into the deep recesses of my brains' operating system..... Retrieval from there is slow, painful and not always reliable.
I've got some old chili powder that has passed its sell-by so will try the "hot dust" now..... It should stick nicely after today's garlic/soap/oil and nettle spray.....
Meanwhile I've also seen Eucalyptus oil mentioned somewhere.... And buying some Pyrethrum seeds seems to be a good idea.
Many thanks for your help Alan.
Mo
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sarahscottdavies
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So was the question ever answered? Can you use a packet of fresh tobacco...don't smoke and don't fancy collecting cig butts up off the street either!!
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peter
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Of course fresh would be usable, caution though because Nicotine is a very potent poison.
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.
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oldherbaceous
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I think the discussions of Nicotine spray should be kept to P.Ms, as it not something that new gardeners should be experimenting with.
Just my thoughts though.
Just my thoughts though.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.
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There's no fool like an old fool.
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peter
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oldherbaceous wrote:I think the discussions of Nicotine spray should be kept to P.Ms, as it not something that new gardeners should be experimenting with.
Just my thoughts though.
Very sensible thoughts though OH.
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.
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sarahscottdavies
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Yes i agree. have been gardening for 15 yrs and i have never known pests like i've had this year. Absolutely everything and stuff i've never seen before, from gooseberry sawfly to aphids on the kitchen window sill to powdery milldew on all the geraniums to leek moth...i have never had to resort to any treatments before other than organic slug pellets. i've had whitefly before but never ever this bad. My guess is that summer arrived so early in march in the south that the winter itself wasn't long enough to do it's job of killing everything off as it should.
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FelixLeiter
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I have used nicotine shreds as a fumigant back in the day when nicotine was an approved insecticide, and it made no discernible difference as far as I can remember. There was something rather compelling about the smell of the greenhouse the next day, although I have never smoked.
Notable is that predators used for biological control of pests in commercial glasshouse are these days largely raised on nicotine plants. Most commercial growers now employ predators for pest control not out of any particular organic or environmental principal but because they are so effective, most other chemical options having been exhausted due to pests becoming resistant.
Notable is that predators used for biological control of pests in commercial glasshouse are these days largely raised on nicotine plants. Most commercial growers now employ predators for pest control not out of any particular organic or environmental principal but because they are so effective, most other chemical options having been exhausted due to pests becoming resistant.
Allotment, but little achieved.
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FelixLeiter
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sarahscottdavies wrote:Yes i agree. have been gardening for 15 yrs and i have never known pests like i've had this year.
Me, I've hardly seen an aphid. Slugs and snails have been bad but nothing else, at least around here anyway. I think there has definitely been some regional variation.
Allotment, but little achieved.
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Colin_M
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FelixLeiter wrote:Most commercial growers now employ predators for pest control not out of any particular organic or environmental principal but because they are so effective,
Can you suggest any predators for Whitefly?
Also, they love my brassicas which are all outside, so I guess the challenge would be making predators stay nearby!
I didn't use the nicotine Sarah because I remembered the Tobacco Mosaic Virus problem as Alan pointed out.
What I did use... And it worked incredibly well... Was non-homogenized full cream milk mixed half and half with water. I sprayed it a total of four times, thoroughly wetting on and under the leaves and leaving for two days between sprays and washing the leaves down a few hours before each re-spray.
Within two sprays the pests had almost disappeared and the final sprays were to catch the newly hatched whitefly.
Not only did it get rid of the pests on the toms and peppers in the greenhouse but also worked outside on my raspberries.
All of the plants were really healthy with deep green leaves after the treatment and crops were really high.... That could have been a coincidence and I can't prove the milk was responsible for the quality and quantity.
I also had no blight on the toms this year, which is unusual as I had Blight Warnings for my area very early in the summer and I have never had a year prior to this one when I didn't have some plants succumb.
I will definitely be using this method again next year.
Regards, Mo
What I did use... And it worked incredibly well... Was non-homogenized full cream milk mixed half and half with water. I sprayed it a total of four times, thoroughly wetting on and under the leaves and leaving for two days between sprays and washing the leaves down a few hours before each re-spray.
Within two sprays the pests had almost disappeared and the final sprays were to catch the newly hatched whitefly.
Not only did it get rid of the pests on the toms and peppers in the greenhouse but also worked outside on my raspberries.
All of the plants were really healthy with deep green leaves after the treatment and crops were really high.... That could have been a coincidence and I can't prove the milk was responsible for the quality and quantity.
I also had no blight on the toms this year, which is unusual as I had Blight Warnings for my area very early in the summer and I have never had a year prior to this one when I didn't have some plants succumb.
I will definitely be using this method again next year.
Regards, Mo