"TimR" wrote in message
...
On Sep 5, 6:23 pm, "The Ranger" wrote:


What's the ratio of soap and water?


Against stinging insects in general, I keep a household spray bottle
handy with a mix of 1:15 soap to water. I use dish soap like Dawn or
something similar. Water alone will not kill them, they are adapted
to outdoor living and rain. However soapy water drowns them quickly.
Hit with this spray, they die FAR faster than with Raid, and I don't
have to worry about poisoning the kids or the dogs.

But I haven't wanted to waste expensive dish soap on nests in the
ground. I just throw in a cup of tide or similar laundry detergent to
each bucket of water.
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Be careful of using laundry soap near plants, though. Many have high enough
levels of alkali and chelating agents to cause damage.


What does the soapy water do to exterminate the nest?


Soapy water wets them and drowns them. Plain water doesn't, I guess
they must have some way of shedding it. I don't really know the
physics of this, but I have done it a number of times and can testify
it works.
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The surfactant in detergents lowers the interfacial tension between water
and their body surface.