DIY Soap-Based Insecticide. Quick and Easy!

Hello Everyone!

I recently had a problem with Spider Mites, and I found this when trying to find a viable organic (and cheap!) insecticide for my little seedlings. It works great and there are several alternatives and tweaks you can do to customize, and maximize the soap-based insecticides effectiveness for you.

Here is the excerpt from www.care2.com:

"Soap has been used for centuries as an all-purpose pesticide.
It disrupts insects’ cell membranes, and kills pests by
dehydration. The key is not to use too much soap, or you’ll
also kill the vegetation near the pests. If you follow the
proportions of soap to water in the Soap Spray recipe, below,
the vegetation should be fine.

Note: Buy a liquid soap and not a detergent. Health food
stores have liquid soaps, such as Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile
Soaps.

Insecticidal Soap Spray
1 to 2 tablespoons liquid soap
1 quart water

Combine ingredients in a bucket, mix, then transfer to a spray
bottle as needed."


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Be sure to use pure soap like Ivory or Castile with no fragrances or chemical additives.

To make this with bar soap do the following:

Shave 1 quarter (or about an inch) off of a standard 10-12oz bar of pure soap into 1 quart of heated (near boiling works well) water. Stir until dissolved. This is your concentrate. (I use Kirk's Original Coco Castile bar soap.)

Add 1 teaspoon of concentrate per quart of water to spray bottle.

For a more potent insecticide (although not organic), you can add 1/4 a cup of rubbing alcohol per quart (to the spray, not the concentrate).

Note: Test on a small area and wait 24 hours to make sure you got the mixture right. Don't spray the plant down until you test it!

I agree with you on adding a surfactant . I don't know if I agree about 1/4 a cup of isopropanol per quart . that sounds like to much .

billy4479 said:

I agree with you on adding a surfactant . I don't know if I agree about 1/4 a cup of isopropanol per quart . that sounds like to much .

Click to expand...

I haven't personally tried this method but I have read about many farmers and cannabis growers using rubbing alcohol and having great results.

Here is a small excerpt from http://frugallysustainable.com regarding this:

"By adding 1/4 cup of isopropyl alcohol to the above recipe you can create a very mild but effective insecticidal soap that treats scale insects. The alcohol works against the scale’s shell.

So you would only want to add this if you were after a certain type of pest. Same as adding Cayenne Peppers to keep larger pests such as caterpillars and grasshoppers away for an outdoor grow. Adding Isopropyl alcohol isn't going to appeal to everyone. I would maybe use 1/8 mix first and see how my plants reacted before moving to a higher concentration.

For anyone wondering about the science behind insecticidal soap, here is a great read about it on a Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticidal_soap

I've used this soap and alcohol recipe on mites before..
.. it worked for a while, but then the little buggers build an immunity to it.

Wtf is going on in this thread?

Hey...you guys want to know how to do it right, correct?

OK, get you a spray bottle..add 1/8 teaspoon cayenne...1tsp olive oil....1/2tsp dish soap, like dawn or whatever. Then slowly fill bottle with water. Spray plants on Sundays before the sun goes down.

Dewa mata