Natural Insect Repellants

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:48:32 +0000 (UTC), FragileWarrior

It may be beneficial for you to invest in some Remay fabric to shelter your grape plants till the June bugs are gone. Also, spraying with pepper spray may be useful. Take two or three habernero peppers in a blender with about two cups of water and an entire bulb of garlic. Blend it, strain out the solids. Take the remaining concentrate and put it into and empty gallon jug and fill with water. Use one cup per gallon of spray, but make perfectly sure you strain out all solids or your sprayer nozzle will clog. I use cheesecloth, or I should say I used to use it. Now I am tolerant of insects or animals chewing on things. I don't have a vinyard so I do understand why you'd like your grapes to remain well.

The message from Jangchub contains these words:

You are also wrong

The active chemical occurs in several members of the compositae family, including, chrysanthemum and marigold. See

"Industrially, pyrethrum extracts are obtained by extraction of dried pyrethrum flowers with hexane followed by dewaxing and decolorization to yield a mixture containing approximately 20% pyrethrins and 80% inert plant materials or solvents. This technical extract is registered with the Environmental Protection Agency and is a standard item of commerce used for formulating numerous end products. Flower production is centered in Kenya and surrounding countries, with some production being attempted in Tasmania and New Guinea. While pyrethrum flowers are not grown commercially in the United States, some of the Compositae (daisies, marigolds, etc.) in U.S. gardens probably produce these compounds. There has been an effort to cultivate C. cinerariaefolium in Oregon and Arizona but this is not yet a viable commercial source. "

Janet.

Jangchub wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Ah, is pride fun, too?

The message from Jangchub contains these words:

Nobody said they were the same. I said, they are in the same plant family (compositae). A simple search will show you that/

Marigolds contain the same insecticidal compounds as chrysanthemum

This sounds like a good thing to try if one had just a few vines but I have over 100 vines. Getting rid of the Japanese beatles is important since they eat the tips of shoots and very young leaves. It just so happens that these are the leaves that are producing most of the photosynthesis at the time of year when the beatles are active.

All this says is that no form of Tagetes has been formulated as a viable source, so you, me, nobody anywhere has ever used any form of Tagetes to kill insects. Pyrethrum FLOWERS is where the compound is found, not the leaves. Your post proves it.

Janet, you said the pesticide was in the leaves and something to the effect of smellier the better or some such thing.

Yes, and marigolds are used as companion plants with tomatoes, and they do not contain pyrethrum. The main point is that they deter certain insects that like tomatoe plants. Marigolds are not an insecticide. They are a deterrent.

dancing in my mind, gloria in hemlock hollow (only the iguanas know for sure)

The message from Jangchub contains these words:

While pyrethrum flowers are not

No, it doesn't say that, you've misread. Try reading it again.

Janet

Oy, there is ONE marigold which can control or help to control root knot nematodes. Otherwise, they are useless. You'd be much better off planting garlic or basil with tomatoes.

Jangchub expounded:

Second response in this thread.

Ann, Janet said the pesticidal properties were in the leaves of the marigold, which she said was pyrethrum. That is not true, and inaccurate. It is not a common marigold which produces the pesticide pyrethrum, but the mum and the pesticide is in the flowers not stems of foliage.

Jangchub expounded:

Yea, V, I saw that further down the thread. I've always known pyrethrum to be derived from mums, also. A google search does not turn up any mentions of marigolds producing pyrethrins at all.

After I typed it I figured you didn't finish reading the whole thread. No worries.

The message from Ann contains these words:

I gave the link, twice :-)

Janet

Regardless, Janet. The pesticide pyrethrum comes from the flower not the foliage and smell has absolutely nothing to do with its insecticidal properties in that it kills insects indiscriminately. Kill is kill. I don't kill knowingly. And no, I don't eat meat either.

The plants themselves don't "kill", only a concentrated extract does. The plants make themselves unattractive to insects by producing it. I have feverfew in my garden and it has similar properties, it is fun to see bees bend their flight path to stay away from its flowers.

Paulo

No, the flowers are crushed up and ground into powder and the entire flower is the pyrethrum which is not only poison to insects, but to most mammals, amphibians, and reptiles including birds (descendants of reptiles).