Mark, I think "horticultural oil" may be the same as the dormant oil sprayed on fruit trees before they bud out. To the best of my knowledge, the oil smothers the insects rather than poisoning them. Just make sure that the oil is not mixed with something else. In the old days, people used to spray fruit trees with dormant oil spray & sulfur (or something), but I don't recall whether the two were mixed together.

I just googled for "horticultural oil" and found out that it's apparently a lighter grade of mineral oil than dormant oil spray.

I also found a recipe at Organic Gardening http://www.organicgardening.com/library/ for making your own spray, which might be worth a try:
Home Horticultural Oil
Recipe: Mix 1 cup of cottonseed or soybean oil with 1 tablespoon of liquid soap; use 1 to 1½ teaspoons per cup of water to spray. When applying, make sure the temperature is below 85 degrees F and that plants are not drought- or heat-stressed.

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Anne Lurie



"Mark" wrote in message ...
Thanks much for the info. I was not aware of horticultural oil - it
certainly sounds better than insecticide. I did get a bag of dried
blood at a local hardware store. I will try it if the pepper doesn't
work (I can always use it for fall planting if I don't use it on the
tomatoes).