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If like us you are trying only to use eco friendly methods, while trying to keep your fruit and veggies from all types of bugs and creepy crawlies eating it before you get the chance. I can recommend neem oil as a really good insecticide. It is safe for use around mammals and can be used on vegetables etc to be eaten. It works by messing with the nurons of the insect so they forget to eat, sleep, mate etc which means death, normally for us within a couple of days. It smells disgusting by the way, but you dilute it with a little washing up liquid and water, so it goes along way.

It also works on animals for killing fleas etc, we use it on both our dogs and cats. Normally I buy organic oil from ebay.

Up to now we have not found anything to compare with it.

I hadn't realised neem was insecticidal. I use it, with bog myrtle essential oil and a less foul-smelling carrier oil as a midge repellent. It seems to work pretty well - better than just about anything else I've tried. It seems to repel visitors too.

Can it be used in the watering can?

I wouldn't have thought so - it'll float.

Sorry guys; I can't recommend the use of Neem products in any form - in Oz they have been widely commercially planted for oil production and in most cases escaped and become seriously invasive. Please be aware that even "natural" products can have serious negative environmental effects.

Absolutely, Weedo, my oil comes from India where it's native. I always worry about "locally produced" items that shouldn't have been grown anywhere near here.
I'm surprised about neem though - I thought it was a tree. Although I'm not sure why, we have a terrible problem up here in the Scottish Highlands with escaped Rhododendrons!

Green Aura wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:28 am Although I'm not sure why, we have a terrible problem up here in the Scottish Highlands with escaped Rhododendrons!

Because they love the climate and the soil! Ideal conditions.

Exactly Ina - Rhodies are also a problem in the Victorian Dandenong Randges where it is high, cold, wet and fertile, Coffee in the Northern NSW sub-tropical forests, sorghum on the mid-west plains, cotton in the tropical north and so ad infinitum.

When I said I didn't know why, I meant it shouldn't have been a surprise. We have a vast history of ruining eco-systems by introducing beautiful/medicinal/pest killing flora and fauna into alien terrains, which take over.

We are finding (although just on the tip of learning about this) that the best insecticide is to not use insecticides, mix plant species, nourish them properly and allow the "weeds" outside the beds to flourish (they are really only an issue if allowed to set seed) As mentioned in another post, the healthiest and most pest free Brassicas we have grown were in beds covered with nettle, shepherds purse (I have since found out that this is edible) and prickly lettuce.

I fully agree. Since my non-method of planting is - oh, there's a bit of space, let's put some plant in it - this kind of follows naturally. Having problem with the setting of seed, though... This morning I'll be out there and doing just that, trying to catch lots of grass (mainly) before it seeds itself out everywhere!

I've been a bit puzzled by the words eco friendly insecticide. I wouldn't have thought that there's really any such thing - I know that there are insects you don't really want on your plants but I've only once in a lifetime had an invasion of something on sprouts. If the balance is right the insects will sort each other out.

I caught a webinar based on the nitrogen cycle a couple of days ago (actually Mrs Weedo did and roped me in to watch also) One of the interesting things that was discussed was insect pests and their functions - basically and without going into the complex details, they have the same function as predators in the animal world in removing the sick, injured and unfit from the population. The "mother" looks for plants that will nourish her babies best and selects those with high levels of the stuff the y need to grow best and these are most often found in plants with nutrient imbalances.

I hadn't thought about it in those terms but have long been of the opinion that all these things have some place in the ecosystem, even if I can't fathom it - wasps anyone? No need for replies.

A long time ago I read something from someone much wiser than me (can't remember who) who said to plant one for the bugs for every few you plant for your own needs. Seems to work.