"jellybean stonerfish" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:48:58 -0500, Marie Dodge wrote:

Why would soap kill them in seconds when it's not a poison? Have you
done this yourself with wasps or is this something you read on an
organic site selling "magic soaps?"

The soap makes the water wetter. It soaks into their skin and they die.
I think maybe they breath through their skin and this makes them drown.
I don't know what happens, just that the soap kills them, and they are
dead. And you don't need special soap for aphids or white flies. Because
my friend is worried about chemicals, we used Dr. Bronners on her iris's,
and gave them a quick wipe between fingers. Also we misted her mint and
rosemary, with now fear of using them in the future. The white fly
infestation is now gone.

Well I sprayed all three gardens with Soap and flour as suggested here. I
had nothng to lose since these products were in my home and are both cheap.
We'll see if soap killed them.... in fact I'm taking the flashlight out
there now and looking.

OK... the plants were sprayed around 7 PM with 1 TBS each of flour and
handsoap (Palmolive) per gallon of water in a brand new sprayer with a
larger tip. Both sides of the leaves were sprayed. Sprayed were collards,
jewel peppers, chard, tomatoes and a Ichabon eggplant. Only the Chard had
spider mites and only a few plants are infested so far. The WF and SMs are
still there and are alive. I could see them moving, walking over the residue
of soap and flour when disturbed. They will not fly at night. They had 6
hours now to suffocate and die. The flour was supposed to somehow kill them
also. The whole garden smells faintly of soap but I guess that's better than
the Organicide which smelled like fish and didn't kill/smother them either.
I'm just wondering what will be said next.... that it's the wrong brand of
flour, the wrong kind of soap, wrong brand of soap and flour, wrong aroma,
constancy of soap.....? I'm sure you can see my point. The second garden
is now being destroyed by these pests and so far nothing had worked. Not
one of you purely Organic people have explained why the Neem Oil, the
Phyrethrum and the Organicide didn't do them any harm either. What's left to
recommend now? How many more organic options are left?

Now, about the wasps. My job is construction. Many times, when working
at someones house, I will encounter a wasp nest. Someone showed me the
soapy water trick many years ago. Fill a pan or large bowl with soapy
water. Fling it on the wasp nest. Done.

I can't try it on wasps since we don't have any here at the moment. But
since the soap and flour didn't kill the WF and SMs, I would have to be out
of my mind to toss it on wasps. You really need to tell people to try it on
insects not dangerous to themselves before recommending they toss it on
wasps. When it fails to kill the wasps as it did the WF and SMs, and the
person is stung, they can go into shock and die.



stonerfish