Feeding plants flies for protein using soapy water

How does a single soap drop of "flak" incapacitate a housefly? Do you think the dish soap is bad or good for the plants?

What is it about soapy water that knocks house flies right out of the air?

In case you want to know why, I use the flies to feed the plants.

I'd rather not use soap (for the plants), but plain water doesn't work.

How does a single soap drop of "flak" incapacitate a housefly? Do you think the dish soap is bad or good for the plants?

Reply to
Dan Jenkins
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Unlike plain water, which flies can shed, soapy water truly wets them. The added weight of water makes them too heavy to fly.

A slight amount of soap will not harm plants. I have used a trace of soap in water as a wetting agent to moisten potting mix that has become bone dry. I also mix a generouse squirt of liquid soap with water-based sprays when applying insecticides or herbicides to ensure the target plants are indeed wet by the spray. I use the cheapest liquid dish detergent that I can find that does not have added scents.

Reply to
David E. Ross

Did you add an acid?

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Dish soap + vinegar

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Antibacterial soap + cider

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Non antibacterial Dawn dish detergent + water

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77788.html Two percent soapy water with no citric acid

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nce/ Dish soap + baking soda + vinegar

Reply to
Bram van den Heuvel

Hi Dan,

I have a sprayer with soapy (disk soap) water that I use to shoot down flies and nail spiders with around the house.

insects do not have lungs. Instead their bodies are riddled with tubes to the outside. The insects movement forces air in and out. These tubes are too small for the surface tension of water to penetrate.

The way soapy water works is that is lowers the surface tension of water so that it goes down their breathing tubes. The little buggers literally drown.

Insecticidal soap is another word for expensive dish soap, expensive shampoo, or just plain old sodium laurel sulfate. All the same stuff.

Soap won't hurt plants.

-T

Reply to
T

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