Horticultural Oil Organic Pesticide
One of the best and the easiest ways to handle the troublesome insect pests in your garden is by making use of oil based pesticides. They are very effective in treating some of the plant diseases and are also eco-friendly. The most popular among the oil based pesticides is the horticultural oils. It is very effective in treating sap chewing and sucking pests. The modern day horticultural oils are based on petroleum oils and are in the form of a thinner. The traditional type of horticultural oil is based on vegetable oil and is known as the white oil. This is the organic horticultural oil.
How does horticultural oil work?
The horticultural oils will kill the pests and other insects on the plant by suffocating them. The oil will not allow the insects to breathe as it blocks the spiracles and therefore they die of suffocation. The oil will cause a disturbance to the insect egg metabolism. They will also hinder the ability of the insects to feed. This way the insects will be starved to death. It is very effective in killing aphids as it will interrupt the way the insect feeds. Make sure that the organic horticultural oil is covered on the insect so that it gets 100% full coverage with the oil. This will ensure that the insect would die otherwise the oil will not be effective. The only drawback that the horticultural oils have is that they affect both the good as well as the bad insects. The excess oil will evaporate and disperse off quickly. Note, even the petroleum based horticultural oil is not toxic and is safe for pets and humans.
How to Make White Oil at Home?
The following is the recipe to prepare organic homemade white oil to control and do away with plant pests like ants, aphids, caterpillars, white fly, slugs, snails, mealy bugs, scale, leaf miner, mites, slaters, earwigs, thrips and grasshoppers.
Take 2 cups of vegetable oil or substitute with sunflower oil or peanut oil.
- You should also have ½ cup of washing liquid ready with you.
- Now, take a jar, open it’s lid and then pour 2 cups of sunflower oil and ½ cup detergent liquid into the jar
- Put the lid on the jar and give the jar a very good shake so that the oil and detergent liquid mixes well. You will notice that the content inside the jar will turn white.
- This is the concentrated white oil.
- Put a label on the jar and store this white oil in a cool and dry place. The homemade white oil has a shelf life of 3 months. After this time then you should make a new batch of white oil.
- You can use the homemade horticultural oil by applying the spray on the pests that you see on your garden plants to kill them. But, make sure that you take one tablespoon of the white oil and dissolve it in one litre of water. Only this diluted solution has to be sprayed on the plants.
Things to remember
It is important for you to shake the white oil jar every time you are using the white oil. You should make sure that you are not spraying the white oil on plants when the temperature is over 30 degrees C. This can burn your plants.
