For indoors try a Vapona or Shell No Pest strip, they work great on mites and dont harm the plants at all, keep them away from pets though as they can kill small animals and birds

For indoors try a Vapona or Shell No Pest strip, they work great on mites and dont harm the plants at all, keep them away from pets though as they can kill small animals and birds

For indoors try a Vapona or Shell No Pest strip, they work great on mites and dont harm the plants at all, keep them away from pets though as they can kill small animals and birds

For indoors try a Vapona or Shell No Pest strip, they work great on mites and dont harm the plants at all, keep them away from pets though as they can kill small animals and birds

I don't use chemical sprays, I use Safer insecticidal soap.

I also use Safer's insecticidal soap as well as hot pepper spray or Neem oil, for aphids, whitefly and spider mites. Since I love petunias, and budworms love petunias too, I'll use Safer's B.T Caterpillar Killer to get rid of the budworms. A good blast of water works well too, and misting the plants helps with spider mites. Otherwise, I'll pick up and try various "homemade" recipes to help with things like powdery mildew, scale, etc. I've not had what I consider a bad enough infestation of insects to justify spraying with chemicals; don't really think a balcony environment is too very conducive to that.

PV

So far I've done fine with ordinary hand dishwashing liquid, maybe with a little rubbing alcohol, in water to spray on bugs. If I need something stronger I'll find some Neem oil or try the Safers since other people seem to like it. I don't want anymore chemicals on my plants than necessary, some I can't control, these I can.

The world is toxic enough. It is always best if possible to use organic methods. I have successfully used household soap and cooking oil sprayed on container plants. Also remove infested areas if possible and throw away. Sometimes you can catch an infestation early. I've been successful picking off scale too. And also pruning if things are too crowded and not getting air circulation and light if they need it. So what I am saying is good care and culture goes a long way. Like someone else said you can also hose off some insects. Realize that constant vigilance is needed, you can never ever get rid of all plant disease and bugs, just like with humans you can't totally get rid of all diseases. But you can try to stay healthy. I am not an expert on compost tea, but I understand that is a good way to feed and foliar feed plants to keep them healthy and disease resistant. Also I encourage friendly bugs and animals to live here, like spiders, ladybugs, lizards, anoles, toads, birds. Of course toxins would be harmful to these, so that is another reason to avoid them. I am so glad that everyone so far recommended against the toxic chemicals.

This summer I had, (well, in fact still have, but I want to believe it is under control...), a massive spider mites infestation that affected two jasminum, a pieris, four roses, my tomatoes, some gladiolus...etc, etc.

I sprayed with an insecticide called arañol, and although it seemed to kill spider mites, the effect on the plants were awful. At the end I had to do a heavy prune inthe affected ones...

The thing is that I didn´t sprayed with this the tomatoes, I used regular dishwashing soap with water on them, and...know what? They are doing just fine, still with some spider mites, but with good health and bearing tomatoes like crazy...I think I can maintain a balance with some bugs on my plants, but not enough to kill them!!

Now I spray all the plants once a week with dishwashing soap, lets see!!

Ines

I've wanted to see what affect dishwashing soap would have on my cornucopia of pests... japanese beetles, inchworms, slugs, snails... I didn't know it was safe to spray once a week. If that's the case, why not do it? I think I'll try it.

What's the ratio of soap to water you use when you spray?

I recently purchased some slug/snail pellets but other than that, I've tried to stay away from chemicals.

I use Safers insecticidal soap most of the time. I eat what I grow and try to be organic about it:) There are times when I do bring out the heavy artillary for bad infestations like aphids on the roses and spider mites on the house plants. Karen

Here's the Soap and Water Spray recipe that I use, you must measure very carefully. ;p I fill a bottle that I think holds 16 oz. with tap water and usually have some suds coming out the top from the last batch, then I add a squirt of dishwashing liquid. See how carefully I measure? I then put the top on, shake it up, and spray away. For some things I'll add a capful of rubbing alcohol. This stuff also cleans up dirty spots from spills when I'm working with my plants indoors really well too. I've seen no adverse effects from using it as frequently as needed. When I was treating a ficus for scale I think I sprayed every day for over a week with the soap and alcohol. At that point I did try to keep the soap from getting into the soil.

If you have rough stuff for the slugs to crawl over that can deter them. So far I've not had them on my balcony but there could always be a first time. When I was doing raised bed gardening I put out crushed eggshells. Copper strips are said to stop them, I've seen pots with pennies glued all over, but I've never tried it myself. For my tomatoes I wanted the pots deeper than what I was planting them in and cut both ends out of coffee cans, set them into the soil with most of the can sticking up, then planted the tomatoes in the coffee cans. I found out later that can deter some pests that like tomatoes.

Sand will do it for the slugs too. And if you need to catch the things, give 'em just enough beer for them to drown in. (At least they'll die happy. :)

I have been using a mix of garlic tea, dishwashing soap, and mineral oil. (for a gallon of water I steeped about 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, added a few drops of dishwashing liquid, and maybe a teaspoon of mineral oil - can't remember exactly) This seems to be working very well. I suggest to do a search and get some better and more exact information and recipe than I am giving. Apparently too much garlic could burn the plants. (?) I'm not sure, it doesn't seem to be hurting mine, but I remember reading something about that.

I have in the past tried chemical pesticide. It didn't work as well, a few days later the aphids were back in force. Actually all it did was smell bad. The garlic mixture on the other hand seems to work very well. (and the garlic smells much nicer)

I recently discovered a horrible spider mite infestation on my brug. That will teach me not to inspect my plants regularly. I sprayed them, pruned back the really damaged and infested parts, and have been spraying regularly. I'm getting some new growth and it looks like the mites are under control. We'll see.

I have to say that in my short 2 years or so of gardening I have found that so far more natural ways of controlling insects seem to be working, and smelling, better than chemicals. Besides, I don't want to kill Spotty (my pet spider that has made his home in my plants)

Speaking of garlic, I was told that planting garlic helps to keep pests away. I have garlic growing in most of my pots and think that might be part of the reason I have *dare I say it?* minimal bug problems. If you want to plant garlic, just pick some up from the grocery store, separate the cloves and stick each one down into the soil. This year I've been eating garlic I grew.

I was told that garlic repels squirrels. So I planted garlic everywhere. Squirrels kept digging up everything including garlic. I kept planting everything back. We have been playing this game until one kind squirrel demonstrated me that garlic doesn't repel them at all. He dug up garlic and ate the whole clove right in front of me. Since then I don't believe in garlic :)
You see, aphids [and others] can travel on wind. If they were dropped on your tasty plant they start to eat it and don't really care you have the garlic in the same pot. It's only my opinion though :)

I've read also that growing garlic with other plants helps to repel insects, also powdery mildew. I did plant some garlic around my brug, but I have a feeling that because of the height of the plant the leaves are not close enough to the garlic, or I just didn't plant enough garlic. Truth is I don't have much experience to say how well it does or doesn't work. I only planted the garlic about a month ago, and this is the first time trying it. But I can say the spray is working really well.

As for squirrels... there is a squirrel that lives in the tree next to our building. My husband occasionally leaves bread on the table outside, by accident of course after feeding the ducks. (that reminds me, I need to get some feed, the bread really isn't good for them) Anyway, I discovered that the little guy manages to get onto the balcony for a little treat. I actually like the little guy, we even named him. I watched from the living room as he managed to open the bag and get the bread. It was really cool. He comes around whenever there is food. So far he has left my plants alone. He'll crawl around in them and snoop, but never bothers them, except for one time. I had a planter with pitcher plant seeds I was trying to start but they never germinated, and he dug that up. I did catch him peeing one time... ingrate!!

I didn't know that aphids could travel on wind, I guess I never thought about it, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to add a few garlic plants if they help even a little.

It might not do anything else but garlic keeps the vampires away, I've not had any hanging around! ;p Whether it really helps or not, it sure does taste good when it's really fresh.

You won't believe how dumb I was! I mixed together some liquid dishwashing soap and cooking oil (as suggested by Louisianagal) and sprayed it on my scarlet runner beans and purple coneflower, which were infested with what I think were leaf hoppers. Next day the temperatures climed to over 100 degrees and = guess what? The cooking oil heated up so much it cooked the lkeaves on the plants! I probably should have added some water to the mixture? Duh!

Hi, I'm new to gardening, well it's really plants--and now a ficus tree--in the terrace. This is the problem: someone abandoned this beautiful ficus in front of their place when they moved out. I picked it up and planted it. After a few days, I noticed the very small new leaves were curled and closed. When I took one, I saw it had very small little black dots on the inside. It wasn't till later that I realized they were moving! I cut off all the leaves that were like that, sealed them in a plastic bag and took the bag to the garbage. What kind of bugs are those? And what can I do to rid the tree of them? Are these the kind you get rid of with the water-detergent-alcohol mix? Info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Black? Hmmm... not sure, but the spray is a good catch-all, it's certainly worth a try. If that doesn't stop it, try the neem or insecticidal soap, I've had good results with both for just about any kind of bug.

I bought safer's soap three years ago through the internet. When I got it and read the label, 99% or so were inert ingredients which were not even listed. Ridiculous, I thought, so I returned the whole thing with a complaint letter and my money was returned. I started doing companion planting, started a compost pile, applied milky spore for the lawn, and beneficial nematodes for the strawberries. Oh, and then I read about using milk for mildew and black spot in roses and grapevine, and so far it has worked. We have fish and frogs, so we cannot afford to pollute our garden :)

I know this may not be practical for most, but here is what I did for snails:

My property use to be very heavily infested with snails. Huge snails. They took a toll on some of the plants.

Two years ago here in San Diego, we had fairly frequent and spaced out light showers. I live on a cul-de-sac and own the two empty lots next door. I also live on a hillside. Consequently, I have a lot of succulent groundcover. Everytime it sprinkled, the snails would come out, so I'd just go out and pick 'em and smash them in the middle of the street. I did this for about three months--everytime it rained or sprinkled. The street looked pretty yucky.

Well, that was two years ago and now I ALMOST NEVER see a snail. Once in a blue moon I'll see a small one and I'll pick it, but that's about it.

-Ron-

Can anybody suggest a organic spray for leaf hoppers on roses? I am enjoying the critters in the garden, and I have ladybugs..so I don't want to kill them?

as a side note, i work at the brooklyn botanic garden, and i just recently found out that when they spray every monday, they spray a formula much like Murphy's Oil Soap. Bugs, apparently, breath through their skin, so when they get soap on them, they can't breath. i think it's very telling that a big botanic garden can use that sort of spray with no ill effect.
:)
heidi

Just a friendly grin from a future chemistry teacher.

Soap is a chemical. Then again, plants, food, air and water are all chemicals too.

I do applaud your attempt to use less synthetic chemicals, especially because some pesticides are pretty toxic at really high concentrations.

However, just because it's not synthetic doesn't neccesarily make it "safe". For example, the way that they used to make soap - with lye - involves using harsher chemicals than your average high school student would use in a chemistry class.

Also - soap works really well to disrupt the membranes of cells. In fact, you can use Murphy Oil soap to extract DNA from an onion: http://biotech.biology.arizona.edu/labs/Murphy_onion.html

So don't overspray...

I've read you can keep some of the enemies away from the container, by smearing a layer of vaseline in a ring all the way around the pot. -Of course this wont be very helpful if the little critters comes flying in, and lands on the plant. (And I don't think a buttered up container, might be all that nice to handle, so I've never tried it myself).

I used every non toxic spray I could this summer to get aphids out of my garden. Nothing worked. I order 1000 ladybugs on line for about $15 (shipping included) and the day after I released the bugs the aphids were gone, never to be seen again.