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Soaps As Natural Insecticides

How much do you know about soap in its various guises? If you bathe with it, it makes you clean and kills some germs, particularly those originating from going to the toilet. It makes children throw up if they eat it. Shampoo hurts if it gets in your eyes. It does not taste very nice. Most dogs hate being washed in it. Anything else? Did you know that it is it is a killer to the majority of species on the planet? The clue is in that it kills germs.

Soap can be used as an insecticide as well as a germicide. Common soap does not kill ‘ninety-nine percent of all known germs – dead’, as the advert for a bleach once used to go and it probably does not kill all the different types of germs either, but as a general insecticide, it is pretty good. Some kinds of soap are better 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, weak or young plants, so you will need to make a couple of tests first. The oil seems to work by intensifying the effects of sunlight in some way.

Domestic washing up liquid, at the strength you use to wash dishes can be used to control wasps, greenfly and some mites. However, but some plants rely on an outer layer for defense and de-greasing soaps can affect that layer. It is safest to only use this liquid on woody plants like roses. If you want real, commercially-produced insecticidal soap, try your garden shop.

Soap usually has an effect on on insects by washing away their outer waxy layer which is meant to stop them dehydrating. It can also lead to cell damage. As a repellent? It possibly smells bad to them, which is a good enough reason for washing surface areas regularly.

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 flowers. Automatic dishwasher soaps are not good for plants as they are too severe, 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 designed to poison insects. Boric acid is slightly 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 concern and that it is an insecticidal soap. Borax is intended to be eaten and will kill a whole ant colony in a few weeks.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with Terro Ant Bait. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our web site at Killing Carpenter Ants.

October 4th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: garden

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