Radika Kesavan wrote:

Cass wrote:

I heard of someone who swears by Listerine for PM. This is what
desperation will lead us to.

Ya know, Cass. That really ought to work well! Really, it ought to work
as an excellent antimocrobial, and all with natural products,
essential oils that is too, all known for aeons as antimicrobials before
micorbes were even known. I kid you not. Here is an excerpt from an
interesting website, marked with (my) emphasis to make the point:

Phenolics
Lister first suggested the used of phenol (carbolic acid) for
sterilization in surgery
the problem with phenol is that it is very irritating and has a bad odor
today phenol is still used in throat lozenges and in throat sprays
phenolics are organic compounds similar to phenol but without the bad
smell and irritancy of phenol
the active ingredient in Lysol is ortho-phenylphenol
it is derived from coal tar and is a class of compounds called cresols
Lysol is also 79% alcohol, enhancing the effectiveness of the phenylphenol
another cresol is hexachlorophene, used as a surgical scrub and the
active ingredient in pHisoHex
hexachlorophene is also used in toothpaste, deodorants and soaps
it is effective against Staphylococci and Streptococci common skin pathogens
phenolics are good disinfectants because they are stable and persistent
*Listerine is another common antiseptic and was first concocted by
Lister in 1879
Warner-Lambert picked it up in 1881 and today it is a $400 million per
year product
Listerine is a mixture of thymol, eucalyptol, menthol and methyl
salicylate: natural products ("essential oils") that include phenolics
Listerine also contains over 25% alcohol which enhances its effectiveness
phenolics act by disrupting cell membranes, inactivating enzymes, and
denaturing proteins*

So even with the alcohol, I might not need to dilute it because it
will evaporate quickly anyway? I have a prospective victim in mind. I
mean, if a rose is going into the green can if doesn't conquer PM, and
it gets PM, what do I have to lose? There's a white patch of the stuff
on one cane of a rose that suffered last fall. I tried rubbing it off,
I tried milk and water, I tried neem oil, and now I may just give a a
dab of Listerine that is under a sink somewhere. I also have Eco Erase,
but hell, it's only March and it seems to early to pull out all the
stops.