Bug Sprays... from previous posts;
I made a light pesticide with some castille soap. I could only find the castille soap in a bar so I shaved some off and let it sit in a spray bottle, shook it to dissovle etc, anyway, it got rid of all the aphids on the iris and lilies. I was sitting on the porch the other day about 2 feet from the irises and i saw zillions of aphids on them... all gone now, mostly. It only took a few shavings in a quart bottle to do the job. Those aphids I've noticed, if you don't get them early in the season they are way out of control by June and then they spread to the tomatoes.
Bugs.. Flowers are one thing but by the time you get notoicable bugs in the garden it's often ttoo late... pick up a bar of castille soap next time you are the store and for another real blast to keep pests away, on the counter put a few cloves of garlic and a couple cayenne peppers (or some powder, 1/4 teaspoon) into a pint jar and just let it steep there for a week or so and then refrigerate. Weak castille soap is great to get rid of aphids, kills em, gets through their skin and they die, and the garlic/cayenne pepper, you use that solution about 1 part garlic water to 2 parts plain water and spray that on your tomatoes (or cucumbers) once or twice while they are small before they flower to make the plant not tasty to bugs. I don't like to spray anything after the plants start flowering, keeps the bees away too, which isn't good. , Filter the garlic water into a bottle so it doesn't clog the sprayer. Spray lightly, don't burn the plants, spray in the evening not hot sun.
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But i changed my formula from cayenne pepper to full blown hot hot chili peppers I had some on the frezer from last years garden. the cayenne wasn't strong enough. The idea is for the stuff to be HOT enough to drive the critters on your plants insane after a few minutes, blind them etc (imagine being dipped into a vat of chili pepper juice, egads) and, kill them. the castille soap will kill aphids.
Test it on your tongue or fingers, it should make them them burn slightly, be careful not TOOO hot or you'll hurt your maters. Use in the evening only, after 6:30 pm, spray generously.
If you don't have tinme to wait a week for it to brew, run the concotion through a food processor and let sit 30 minutes before straining into a spray bottle.
I mixed half pepper spray with half castille soap mix to kill both aphids and other beasts in one go this time. Worked great. Generous with spray, plants should drip a bit. Be sure to get both top and bottom of leaves, most bugs like to hide on the underside of the leaves.
may not kill all bugs, this is best to do every 3-4 weeks to kill the baby insects and keep them from becoming adults to breed again. Baby insects do not have hard shells so that hott osapy mixture will go right through theor soft skins and paralyze them and they'll die.
Just pinch off any leftover bugs trhe next day with your fingertips.
I generally do a once a day walk through from this point forward and snatch off any major unfriendly beasts with my hands and smoosh em underfoot. I got bugs in there that will decimate an 18' inch mater in 2 hours flat if I don't keep an eye out for them. I have no idea what those slimy things are but they ferocious eaters. they really like the tomatotillos, the mexican tomatoes i grow for salsa, so far thay have eaten 2 entire plants (before I realized they were in there), think i have them under control though.
If you see anything nasty like that, remove the entire leaf they are on and grind it to dust with your shoe. Check the undersides of your plant leaves for bug eggs too, pinch off and smoosh also.
That's my dad's time tested and true hot pepper spray bug killer recipe btw. Been using it for years, so for a fact it's reliable.
I have baby tomatoes bout as big as your thumb nail. I am not going to name them though.
Don't envy you the chore of battling them doctors. Get your paperwork in order, there are forms you need to fill out to bypass the vaccinations, here anyway i imagine there too.
