Les,

Where ya been? How's the leg?

Steve

I think it would work with even less Murphy's Oil Soap. Just one capful. Shake it up.

If you could see the patio table in my back yard, you'd think there was a chemical factory on premises. I'm gradually using up all of them, so cannot tell which one was more effective.

I'll make a separate post about another potential pest discovered in my garden, see if anyone else has such visitors.

Sounds like it might do the trick.

Les good hearing from you. Hope you are recovering well.
Cher

So can you use this if they are unfurled?

I imagine you could use it if they're unfurled except that you'd leave red speckles all over your plants. Plus, as far as rabbits go, they definitely prefer small tender new leaves and pips--at least, thats what they eat in my yard.

Yes Cindy, we used the spray on the ones that were unfurled too. There is one section by our house that the rabbit likes to nibble on all of my hostas, even the ones with big leaves.

It took 8 quarts to spray all of our hostas. I'm thinking it cost us less than $1.

I'm going to strain the next batch after boiling. So far, there's not many red speckles all over the plants. And, those red speckles will look much better than the haze that Liquid Fence leaves.

I'm really hoping this works. We've spent over $100 on Liquid Fence products this spring alone. If this doesn't work, fencing might be the only alternative.

Gesila

16 days without losing a single leaf to the rabbits. I'm going to spray the hostas that are still unfurling tomorrow. This is the longest I've gone without losing hostas leaves to rabbits. I made a batch today and strained it before pouring into the spray bottle...this should avoid leaving red specks on the hostas.

Gesila

Gesila-You are so good at controlled experimentation. You are a person after my own heart! It appears your pepperspray expetiment is likely to be a successful one. If the bunnys develop a tolerance for Cayenne I would love to see the expression on their faces if you substituted jabaneros. lol

After spraying on unfurled leaves do you notice if they become more puckered? Or maybe sweat more on dewey mornings? "You know your pepper-spray is too hot when?"

I make a similar recipe, a few more ingredients and no Murphy's. I would caution about using Murphy's or any other sticker/spreader that is oil based - it will strip the "blue" off your blue hostas..... ask me how I know! BTW - I don't boil anything, just mix and let it sit in the sun for a few days. Plenty of decoction action from that.

Alexa

What would happen if you substituted a little liquid dish soap for the Murphy's oil soap?

I keep a big container of cayenne or Chinese red pepper as it is sometimes labelled. Wish it worked on slugs.

And today, I was repotting a split leaf philodendron. Taking it from its old nursery black pot, I found several slugs in the root ball, think they came up through the holes around the perimeter. I knocked off a lot of the dirt, unknotted the root ball, and then dunked it into a big boiling pot (not hot, just the kind of pot)with 1:10 household ammonia and water. Perhaps I should have used a similar mix of bleach instead?

I let it drip over the old soil where the slugs had disappeared, and hope it got em good. An earth worm came up out of the ground and was stretching very long, so it had penetrated the ground with some effect. Sorry, didn't mean to harm the worm, it probably is in ICU tonight.

Meanwhile, I still have a whiff of ammonia in my sinus, so the formula is potent.

A hotter pepper would be habanero or chile pequin. We can buy habanero powder here, but don't know if you can in MN. You might have to make your own. If so, just dry in the oven on it's lowest setting (my lowest setting is 170). Or if you have an old stove with a pilot, they will usually dry overnight without added heat, but could take up to 2 days with just the pilot. Then grind with a spice grinder (open the windows). That's a really hot powder (Paul Prudhomme calls for it in one of his recipes). I've never seen chile pequin as a powder, but it's a really hot pepper that's fairly easy to find. Jalapenos are not really very hot in the pepper world.

bkay

How often did you spray the plants? I made this recipe today. I hope the bunnies enjoy :)

I've sprayed twice since April 24, but we haven't had a lot of rain. One of my clients gave me this recipe. He told me that the rabbits wouldn't come back after spraying. So, far, he's been right.

This sure beats Liquid Fence by a long shot. And, the price is right!

Gesila

If you strain it, what do you use? It will not go through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer. Then, what type of sprayer do you use? The ones we have tried clog every second LOL!

Why not? You just want the capsaicin from the pepper. It's the chemical that makes the heat in the pepper (most peppers). Once you boil it, the chemical is released into the water. At that point, just strain out the solids..recipe for hot pepper spray (scroll down for the recipe) https://simplegardenlife.com/make-use-hot-pepper-spray/

bkay