RE: Safers Soap on mealy bug
th_dewitt@ccmail.pnl.gov
Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:29 -0700 (PDT)
I've not had much luck using Safer's to control mealy bugs (MB) on any
plants, let alone CPs, and it will burn tender plants (ie, Drosera).
However, I have had very good luck controlling MB with a home-made,
tobacco-based recipe (based on recipe in Rodale's organic gardening
book) (note: concentrations are approximate):
Tobacco-Tea stock solution:
- 5 cigarettes, filters removed, coarsely broken up - ca. 100 ml
rainwater (or distilled water)
- ca. 20 ml alcohol (isopropyl from the pharmacy, prob. 50-70%
solution; final alcohol content ca. 10%; ethanol or methanol would
prob. work ok too).
- combine and let soak for several days (or indefinitely) to extract
nicotine & ??? from cigarettes. I keep the tea (cigarettes & all) in
small plastic jar. Not sure how long potency will keep, but I'd guess
months.
- optional: add crushed garlic (this might rot eventually), or couple
drops of citronella or eucalyptus oil.
Application:
To control MB on a small Sarracenia, I placed plant in bucket w/ ca.
2-L rain water (enough to cover most of the pot and plant) and added
10-20 ml of the tobacco tea. I left the plant submerged in this for
about 3 days, and upon removal, there was no sign of MB. Simply
submerging the plant in rainwater (no tobacco tea) had no affect on
MB, so I'm pretty sure the tea did the trick. I also use this as a
spray (10 ml tea to 500 ml rainwater) and it seems to control aphids
on Drosera and Sarracenia. I rinse the CPs a few hr after
application, but not sure whether that's necessary.
Submerging CP in rainwater for 2-3 days also gets rid of aphids.
Ted DeWitt
Port Townsend, WA USA