Is it reliable to use soap water and tobacco water to kill insects?
Article guide: Introduction to the Flower Clinic, is it reliable to use soap water and tobacco water to kill insects? Let's take a look together.
For a long time, it has been popular to make insecticides at home, such as using soap water, tobacco water, or even soaking orange peels in water to kill insects. Of course, many gardening enthusiasts want to know if these methods are effective and worth trying.
1. Soap Water Insecticide
This is effective, especially against red spiders, which do not cause much harm to plants. It can kill many soft-shelled pests, such as aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies, red spiders, and ants. The principle of insecticide is that the fatty acids in the soap decompose into a natural wax coating, which causes the pests to dehydrate and die when sprayed on them.
Attention should be paid to the method of application. When spraying, use soft water like rainwater, well water, or cool boiled water, as tap water is hard. After dissolving soap in water and spraying it on soft-bodied pests, it forms a wax coating on their cell membranes, causing them to dehydrate and suffocate.
The concentration of soap water must be maintained between 0.5-1% in terms of acidity and alkalinity. Before using soap water as an insecticide, you should first understand the ingredients of the soap in your home. It's best to use soap that does not contain fragrant additives, bleaches, or any other chemical elements.
Finally, make sure to spray the solution on the affected leaves and plants promptly, and ensure that the spray is evenly distributed on both sides of the leaves.
Tips for spraying soap insecticide:
(1) Spray in the morning, not at noon or at night, and avoid spraying on rainy days.
(2) The soap solution is only effective when it comes into full contact with the pests, so make sure to spray thoroughly and evenly each time.
(3) Do not spray plants that are not affected by pests, as frequent spraying can make the soil more alkaline. The recommended frequency is to spray three times a week until it takes effect.
2. Tobacco Water Insecticide
There are many versions of this, including using the butts of cigarettes to soak in water, or using tobacco without the tobacco leaves. Some information suggests that tobacco liquid contains (Y-J), which is highly effective against aphids, red spiders, and ants, and also has fumigating and stomach-toxic effects. Take 20 grams of tobacco powder or tobacco leaves, add 500 grams of water, and soak for 24 hours before filtering. Then add 500 grams of 2% soap water to the filtrate and spray it on the affected leaves; you can also spray the filtrate directly on the potting soil and around the pot base without adding soap water to kill soil insects.
As for the effectiveness, let's look at the experience of a gardening enthusiast who learned it online: bought some dried tobacco leaves, soaked them in water for 24 hours, then used a spray head to remove as many aphids as possible from the roses, and then sprayed the tobacco water. After a week, most of the aphids were gone, and some new aphids appeared on the tips of the rose leaves, indicating that they had just started to invade. It seems that tobacco water is quite effective, at least in controlling the outbreak.
Another gardening enthusiast's experience: Last year, I bought some apple seedlings online and planted them in a pot. This spring, they started to sprout, but soon after sprouting, they were infested with aphids, and the tender seedlings were drooping. After spraying tobacco water twice, the effect was good, the new seedlings stood up straight again, and the apple tree regained its vitality.
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