Soap and Water

By: John Degroot

June 30 2012

Soap and Water - Garden Clippings for June 23, 2012

                There were hundreds of them, eating voraciously.  My Mugho Pine was the victim and the perpetrator was Pine Needle Sawfly.  I acted quickly, because I was in my usual hurry, but also because they were eating so rapidly that I figured time was of the essence.  I went downstairs to the shelf where the insecticides normally sit but then remembered that I had gotten rid of the pesticides after McGuinty’s Cosmetic Pesticide Act was introduced.

Rather than trek back to work to find an approved pesticide, I got a pail of water, added a few squirts of dish detergent and dumped it on the Mugho Pine.

They died.  Instantly.  All of them.  I almost felt sympathy for the sawflies.  It was not my intention to be so hostile.  But dead they are, and I suppose my Mugho Pine is happier for it.                 

Sawflies are easy to kill. Any insecticide will stop them dead in their tracks.  In retrospect I suppose I should have hit the cluster of Sawflies with a blast of cold water to see if that would do the trick.   

Many insects are not easy to kill.  Spider mites for example, are difficult to control, as are Locust Plant Bug, Birch Borer, Emerald Ash Borer and a host of other damaging insects.

The most readily available insecticide for use in Ontario’s gardens is insecticidal soap or potassium salts of fatty acids.  It provides effective control of a broad range of insects including aphids, mealy bugs, sawflies, earwigs and whiteflies.  It may be necessary to spray a few times in order to achieve control.

For crawling insects, I often recommend Diatomaceous Earth, often going by the brand name of Insectigone or Crawling Insect Killer.  This dust, made from natural sources is like fine particles of glass which, when walked on, grinds up the insect.  Diatomaceous Earth is not toxic to humans or animals, and Fido won’t get sick if he takes a bite.  It works great against crawling insects such as aphids, sawflies, earwigs and caterpillars.

Diatomaceous Earth is registered for both indoor and outdoor use.  For indoors, apply a small amount of the dust wherever insects might travel, such as behind appliances, along baseboards and around pipes and drains.  It is effective against cockroaches, bedbugs, centipedes, millipedes, ants, silverfish and crickets.

End-all is a restricted use organic insecticide which contains a mix of insecticidal soap, neem oil and pyrethrums.  It will control a broad spectrum of insects in all stages from egg to adult.  End-all can be used on trees, shrubs, fruit trees, vegetables and houseplants.

Bio-mist is a botanical insect control containing pyrethrums, which are made from organic sources.  It can be used indoors and out and provides effective control against many small insects including mosquitoes and ticks.   Like End-All, bio mist is a restricted use insecticide which means the retailer will keep it under lock and key, will provide some explanation of the product and will hand you a slip of paper containing contact information about Ontario’s cosmetic pesticide ban.