Caterpillars

Now I have rid of 99% of the aphids, I am getting itty bitty baby caterpillars. Come at me with poison suggestions please! These buggers are everywhere and the eucalyptus oil that gets rid of my aphids is not working. Boo.

I think the product you need is Dipel......

Can I get that at Bunnings?

yes

All this aphid spraying, catapiller killing, blackspot leaf removal, deadheading and pruning that appears to be going on is making me think that I am a lazy gardner.

Haha or you're lucky with the roses you have

Balinbear wrote:All this aphid spraying, catapiller killing, blackspot leaf removal, deadheading and pruning that appears to be going on is making me think that I am a lazy gardner.

I know I am.

Here are the notes I took on Caterpillar Spray in my homemade remedies file:

Dissolve one tablespoon of molasses into one liter of warm water.
Add one teaspoon of Sunlight dish washing liquid or other pure liquid soap

Spray regularly over the leaves of all plants attacked by caterpillars and other chewing pests. Caterpillars would rather starve than eat leaves sprayed with this mixture. It has also been used with success by some gardeners as a possum repellent and for the treatment of soil affected by root knot nematodes by doubling the concentration of molasses.
Sorry no reference …

Thanks Jaci, another one to put in my file.

Jac - Where can I get molasses? Coles?

Rosy, any major supermarket should have it. Next to Golden Syrup.

how do you stop the thick molasses from clogging up the sprayer...its not a very good at vapourising even when extremely runny and it cools quickly, hence thickens up again?........then I suppose you have to try and clean the sprayer....hmm..could be time comsuming

Warm/hot water?

I suppose you would need to use hot water , so that it makes it as liquid as possible......

Do you think it would still get clogged?

I personally think it would, but since I have not tried it as a spray, this one you might have to ask Jac if she has tried it......

No, Neptune, I’ve never personally tried this solution. It’s just some info I came across one day and put on file. How do you know it will clog the nozzle, if you’ve never tried it? You never actually know, until you try; I would use a little cheapie bottle, if I were worried this might happen.

I use molasses in my teas all the time and I need to be able to dilute it the best I can....I am only assuming that it will clog because it can't vaporise like water....I can see a test coming up...hmmmm.....

ok an update for Jac...you got me thinking and I carried out the experiment.......

1 teaspoon of molasses made very runny
1 ltr of warm water
mix the two
and no problems spraying the rose bushes.

Pulled sprayer apart and found uptube brown. Placed dishwashing detergent and hot water ...mixed and spray away....all nice and clean now...

Thank you for that, Neptune, this information is very helpful