Cheers to Dr. Bronners

My neighbors garden became infested and overrun by some sort of bug while he was gone. Before I noticed anything was going on, his pumpkin plants were destroyed and the fruit ruined. I just shook my head, thinking "poor guy, he's going to be disappointed".

Imagine my horror when I looked at my squash and I had them all over it. I mean ALL OVER! I had some insecticidal soap in the garage so I figured that I would try that. I was elated to see them leave this Earth and move to the other side right in front of my eyes. Normally, I am hesitant to get rid of any bugs, but this is war!! My squash, cucumbers and zucchini are on the line!

Fast forward to today when he returned home. Apparently he noticed that his plants that were probably 100 square feet were completely gone! Stems chewed through, leaves devastated. Nothing left. So, he pulled them out like we all would and got rid of them. Well, where do you think all of the bugs left on his plants went...yep, over to mine.

Having done some search here and other places, I picked up some Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap while at Target. I mixed 1 1/2 tsp into a quart of warm water, swirled it around a few times and went to work. There were literally hundreds of them in there. I sprayed the bottom of the stem thoroughly and, as if by magic, they all moved to the top of the leaves where they were easy pickings! I used the entire quart on them. When I left, there was no movement anywhere. Hopefully I got most of them and will check again tomorrow morning with my fingers crossed. I am sure there will be some stragglers, but I will get them too.

I could not identify them readily, they looked a lot like stinkbugs, but they did not have the shield-shaped back. Perhaps a variant? I will try to post a picture tomorrow if desired. I did go back later on with some water and rinsed off the leaves somewhat in case the solution may be bad for them. To be honest, if I have to sacrifice my yellow squash to kill the critters and save my zucchini and cucumbers, I will. Hopefully there will be no I'll effects though.

Sorry for the rambling...I just wanted to post a positive result for homemade insecticidal soap using Dr. Bronners in case anyone else is having issues.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far, and happy gardening.

Jeff

P.S. I suppose I should have waited to make sure I didn't kill the plant before posting, but from what I have read, these soaps are fairly safe if not mixed too strong...thoughts?

This message was edited Jul 6, 2011 8:59 PM

Well, I've never used Dr Bronners for such a serious infestation. I am glad it worked for you. I think also a good thing you rinsed it off in case it would burn the foliage although perhaps you diluted it enough.

I use Dr Bronners for many things and like it but will say if the plants are watered with it, it will cause the plant to take on the peppermint taste right before it dies. I had it accidently splashed in a lemon verbena. When I watered the plant, it started dying, I tried to harvest and dry the leaves and they were terrible. Finally figured out what happened.

Please continue to report on the health of your plants and post a photo of the villain if possible.

Thanks for the reply podster.

I was keenly aware of the potential for burning the foliage, so I sprayed them around 8pm and rinsed about 20 minutes later. As for the dilution, I used just a bit over tsp for a quart of water. Doesn't seem like much, but what do I know? :) Maybe I will have peppermint-flavored yellow squash. LOL

If nothing else, it will make an interesting test case.

I will endeavor to keep updating and grab a villain to take a snapshot tomorrow, hopefully posthumous. Please call me out if I do not live up to my end of the bargain!

Thanks again,
Jeff

Okay, this morning the plants don't look any worse for the wear after last night's bug battle.

I did manage to snap a few pictures this morning.

First, here is the enemy...

Here is the damage they caused on one of the leaves.

Lastly, here is a look at the number of bugs this morning. This is after my dispatching of a couple hundred last night. I hit them again with the spray and rinsed the plant off around 730 this morning. Before the sun hits them and the heat starts. Luckily, some of them appear to be casualties left over from last nights battle that did not get rinsed off.

Jeff

That's a squash bug you have there. I hope the soap keeps working for you. If not, supposedly Neem works on the little buggers too. Good luck!

Thanks for the diagnosis ErockRPh.

Once I googled it, there the critter was! I am not sure why I did not look at those since it was on my squash. I suppose since it came from my neighbor's pumpkins they threw me off the trail and for some reason I got locked into it being a stink bug. LOL :)

Thanks,
Jeff

Well, mixed results today. I have had some leaf loss, but I am unsure whether it was from my spraying or the bugs. The lost leaves were in the middle of the plant where most of the damage had been done. They were yellow/brown before and now they are curled up, brown and looking pretty much done. On a positive note, there is plenty of new growth so I think they will be okay if I can get the bugs under control. I dispatched a whole bunch more today and this time tried to knock them off the leaves first.

I did notice that the line I thought was a quart on my sprayer was actually only about 26 oz. or so, so it may have been a bit strong...we will see what tomorrow brings. The bell peppers, cucumbers and zucchini that I sprayed all seem to be doing fine. Is the leaf structure of the cuke and zuc that much different?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

The battle has swung in my favor as the number of squash bugs has fallen dramatically. I just hope it is not too late. As you can see in the picture, the bugs have taken their toll. I am hopeful though since there is a lot of new growth. I am pretty sure the damage is bug related, not spray related, since the majority of damage looks like everyone elses and I have rinsed afterwards 90% of the time.
Jeff

My cukes and zucchini. Hopefully the zucchini will recover.

Jeff