Using Soaps As A Natural Insecticide
How much do you know about soap in its various guises? If you wash with it, it makes you clean and destroys some germs, especially those originating from using the toilet. It makes children vomit if they eat it. Shampoo hurts if it gets in your eyes. It does not taste very nice. Most dogs hate being bathed in it. Anything else? Did you know that it is it is a killer to the majority of creatures on the planet? The clue is in that it destroys germs.
Soap can be employed as an insecticide as well as a germicide. Everyday soap does not kill ‘ninety-nine percent of all known germs – dead’, as the advert for a bleach once went and it perhaps does not kill all the different types of germs either, but as a broad-spectrum insecticide, it is pretty good. Some types of soap are more effective than others.
Neem Tree oil soap is a good example. It will poison some insects such as fleas and repel a whole load more and it is a potent fungicide. In fact, there has to be a lot more study carried out on what Neem can do. It is a tree from south-east Asia, particularly India, where it has been used for hundreds of years minimum for its antiseptic, insecticidal and fungicidal properties.
However, it is very potent If you use it on your plants take care. It may kill delicate, scrawny or young plants, so you will have to make a few tests first. The oil seems to work by increasing the properties of sunlight in some manner.
Household washing up liquid, at the strength you use to wash dishes can be used to kill wasps, greenfly and some mites. However, but some plants depend on an outer layer for defense and de-greasing soaps can have an effect on that layer. It is safest to only use this detergent on woody plants like roses. If you want real, commercially-produced insecticidal soap, try your garden shop.
Soap usually works on insects by dissolving their outer waxy layer which is meant to stop them dehydrating. It can also cause cell injury. As a repellent? It possibly smells bad to them, which is a good enough motive for washing surface areas often.
Domestic soaps, with the exception of Neem, are only effective as an insecticide when they are wet, but you should never apply soap suds in strong direct sunlight or they may burn or boil your plants. Automatic dishwasher soaps are not good for plants as they are too harsh, but may be effective against ants’ nests and wasps’ nests and the like.
The most effective insecticide the world has ever known, borax or boric acid, used to be added to a lot of soaps and may still be added to some intended to poison insects. Boric acid is a little less safe than table salt to humans and their animals, so if you see that chemical in a soap, you know that it is not a cause for worry and that it is an insecticidal soap. Borax is meant to be consumed and will kill a whole ant colony in a few weeks.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on many subjects, but is at present involved with Terro Ant Bait. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please visit our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.
Tags: biology, Gardening, home remedies, house, insecticide, insects, Landscaping, Other, outdoors, pests, pets, science, soap, uncategorisedNovember 11 2011 | Landscaping | No Comments »