Marley1372 wrote:

snip

not pushing organic gardening here, im urging common sense! Horticultural oil
works very good on aphids.

I'm assuming that the purpose of the oil is to make the other
product stick to the plant - correct?

We had aphids this year (again) on our roses and my wife made a
mixture of a small amt of vegetable oil, water and soap & sprayed it
on them. She felt it worked well since soap and water seem not to
stick to the leaves. No aphids and the roses didn't seem to mind.
Where ever it was she read about this, it apparently said and type
of regular kitchen cooking oil.

I'm assuming that the purpose of the oil is to make the other
product stick to the plant - correct?

The oil im speaking of is usually petroleum oil or ultra-fine oil. The product
you should look for is all seasons oil, or horticultural oil. It works great
on aphids and is not particularly dangerous as long as you use it correctly. I
dont know about using vegetable oil, it seems like it is probably too heavy for
use during the growing season.

Toad

On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 19:00:35 -0600, John DeBoo
wrote:

I'm assuming that the purpose of the oil is to make the other
product stick to the plant - correct?
Oil smothers the insects it covers. Mixing soap and oil can be
somewhat counter productive since the soap is formulated to break down
cooking oils. Try using them separately for better results.

Great wife!

uhhh...I always thought the purpose of the bit of soap (liquid kitchen
detergent in my case) is to emulsify the oil so it can be sprayed on more
evenly/easily. The old adage of oil and water not mixing and stuff like
that. And a little of the soap/oil mix goes a long way...I use something
like a teaspoon to one cup of water, or around 3 fl oz to one gallon of
water - a 1:43 ratio or thereabouts. For me, works great on aphids, scale,
spittlebugs, and other pests without harming the plants.


"Tom Jaszewski" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 19:00:35 -0600, John DeBoo
wrote:

I'm assuming that the purpose of the oil is to make the other
product stick to the plant - correct?
Oil smothers the insects it covers. Mixing soap and oil can be
somewhat counter productive since the soap is formulated to break down
cooking oils. Try using them separately for better results.

Great wife!

But this doesn't kill the aphids that have congregated on the
undersides of the leaves. If you can spray the mixture on the
undersides of the leaves, then that works, but what about a large
plant with very thick foliage? If you miss just a few leafs with a lot
of aphids on the bottoms of them, then won't they reproduce and
produce thousands of offspring in the following weeks?


"Lawrence Akutagawa" wrote:

uhhh...I always thought the purpose of the bit of soap (liquid kitchen
detergent in my case) is to emulsify the oil so it can be sprayed on more
evenly/easily. The old adage of oil and water not mixing and stuff like
that. And a little of the soap/oil mix goes a long way...I use something
like a teaspoon to one cup of water, or around 3 fl oz to one gallon of
water - a 1:43 ratio or thereabouts. For me, works great on aphids, scale,
spittlebugs, and other pests without harming the plants.


"Tom Jaszewski" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 19:00:35 -0600, John DeBoo
wrote:

I'm assuming that the purpose of the oil is to make the other
product stick to the plant - correct?
Oil smothers the insects it covers. Mixing soap and oil can be
somewhat counter productive since the soap is formulated to break down
cooking oils. Try using them separately for better results.

Great wife!

Well...yes...for a non toxic mix that works on contact (smothering) you have
to spray directly on the pests. Undersides of leaves I can handle even with
thick foliage thanks to the angled spray wand. The tough situation for me
is when the aphids curl the leaves and hide inside the curl. I one by one
uncurl as many as I can and spray with one of those quart hand
sprayers/misters. The best remedy is to spray before the leaves curl.

With aphids, by the way....get some tanglefoot and use it to keep the ants
away. Those ants serve as farmers and protectors of the aphids. Usually,
no ants, no aphids.


"Noone" wrote in message
...
But this doesn't kill the aphids that have congregated on the
undersides of the leaves. If you can spray the mixture on the
undersides of the leaves, then that works, but what about a large
plant with very thick foliage? If you miss just a few leafs with a lot
of aphids on the bottoms of them, then won't they reproduce and
produce thousands of offspring in the following weeks?