Flying Skull Nuke Em

kneecapman said:

Guys, I am reading through here and a couple of take aways.

Neem oil is shit folks. Keep it.

Flying Skulls is the only thing you need. This stuff is unreal. I had a problem that I couldn't id for 6 months. One day, while checking my outdoor flowers to see the trich stage, I seen the bastards under a 500x usb microscope. Russet Mites. It was too late for a few flowering plants indoors, a whole tray of clones, and a whole veg crop. Needless to say, I freaked out and hit the net to read up on these maggots. After seeing how one could easily spend 500 bucks on miticide and regular pesticides just to knock them off of veg plants, I made a list of things to buy and went to the grow store. The guy at the counter seen me scrambling around the bug spray shelf and he asked what I had. I said Russet and he said, "put all that shit away. Grab the Fling Skulls Nuke Em. That's it. Go to the FAQ on their website and you will thank me later."

Understatement. This stuff is amazing. Turned 2/3 dead plants around! Flowers that were sucked dry started getting green calyx and hairs back! I stopped a complete infestation and I am still on my first 32oz bottle. The 8 foot tall outdoor plants just finished with minimal damage from where I may have sprayed too much. Guys, you can spray this directly on buds the day of harvest, and if the next day, after you cut them down, there is still mites: spray again! No residue. No failed lab test. No taste. I am 100% not bullshitting. As a bonus, all other annoying pests are gone! I had an aphid problem that cost time and $ to deal with as well as some areas in my rooms where PM was hard to control. White flies and root gnats

ALL GONE.

So seriously guys, I don't want to sound too much like a commercial here, but ya. Nuke Em and you're going to never buy Neem oil or pyrethrin ever again. I'm about to toss my Captain Jacks and Green Cure into the can as well.

Also, 50 bucks for 8 gallons of regular strength. (32 oz concentrate) is pretty fair imo. But when you get done really letting them have it, you can mix up weaker solutions and add a wetting agent for preventative spraying. My russet emergency is over but there is no way I would use avid and systemic chemicals knowing that there is a product like Flying Skulls avaiable. Believe the hype. I asked a grower in CO and they spray after harvest before drying every time just to make sure they pass inspection at the lab! So come on! I think this is settled!

Click to expand...

vostok said:

On further reading I got this: from Nes at : https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=291721

Can we talk about Nuke em for a minute?
I keep hearing good things about nuke em, but I have yet to try it. People say it works for mites and mildew without all the nasty. Some folks say it works on Broad mites, though flying skulls recommends using Z7 with it for BM. I've also heard of people overduing it and stressing their plants with it.

When I first saw the product in the hydro store, the manufacturer listed the active ingredient as citric acid, with yeast and potassium sorbate as inert ingredients. In fact, it's still listed this way on the flying skulls website.
http://flyingskull.net/proddetail.php?prod=Nuke-em

However, if you looks at the other distributors of it elsewhere, ones who actually explain a bit of its "multiple" modes of action, they list potassium sorbate as the active ingredient, with citric acid and yeast as inert
http://www.wellplant.com/products/nuke-em/
http://www.wellplant.com/products/nu...l-information/

The EPa and USDa requires pesticide producers label as 'active' the ingredient they claim to be the working one. When I asked the local hydro store guy about this, he told me the flying skulls sales rep was pretty vague and didn't seem to want people to know just how it works. My friends in the dept of ag-organics program tell me pesticide producers could potentially get arround requirements to label ingredients as "active" by not advertising them to be.
So does Nuke em work? If so, what makes it work and how? What are its modes of action? and why is it so damn expensive?

The ingredients are listed by weight, so lets brake down a gallon of Nuke em.
1 gallon of water is 3780 grams, so
0.05% citric acid comes out to 1.89 grams per gallon.
9.43% yeast is 0.7858lbs per gallon
0.02% of potassium Sorbate is 0.756 grams ger gallon.

Even at the hydro stop, I get 1.6lb of citric acid cystals of 16$, so if my math is right, 1.89 grams is 4 cents worth of citric acid.
Brewer's yeast is about 7$/lb so 0.7858lb of yeast comes out to $5.50
I found potassium sorbate @ $18.50/lb (shiping included) on google. If my math is right again, that 0.756 grams costs 3 cents.
$0.04
$5.50
$0.03
$5.57 of active and inactive ingredients in a gallon of concentrate that retails for $55!
Of course that cost doesn't take into account labor, packaging, distribution and overhead on the manufacturing facility, but unless there is something missing here, this seems like an easy recipe to replicate.

Do anny of y'all have any thoughts on this product?
am I missing something here?
Feel free to share your experiences with Nuke em, success and failures!


EDIT: I looked a bit closer at the second label and noticed "Nuke em is not registered with the US Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Its formula qualifies for exemption under FIFRA section 25 (b) as a minimum risk pesticide. "
This may be why they can change their label's active ingredient claims.

Click to expand...

greg nr said:

Until more people actually use and review it, I'm smelling spam.

Click to expand...

vostok said:

On further reading I got this: from Nes at : https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=291721

Can we talk about Nuke em for a minute?
I keep hearing good things about nuke em, but I have yet to try it. People say it works for mites and mildew without all the nasty. Some folks say it works on Broad mites, though flying skulls recommends using Z7 with it for BM. I've also heard of people overduing it and stressing their plants with it.

When I first saw the product in the hydro store, the manufacturer listed the active ingredient as citric acid, with yeast and potassium sorbate as inert ingredients. In fact, it's still listed this way on the flying skulls website.
http://flyingskull.net/proddetail.php?prod=Nuke-em

However, if you looks at the other distributors of it elsewhere, ones who actually explain a bit of its "multiple" modes of action, they list potassium sorbate as the active ingredient, with citric acid and yeast as inert
http://www.wellplant.com/products/nuke-em/
http://www.wellplant.com/products/nu...l-information/

The EPa and USDa requires pesticide producers label as 'active' the ingredient they claim to be the working one. When I asked the local hydro store guy about this, he told me the flying skulls sales rep was pretty vague and didn't seem to want people to know just how it works. My friends in the dept of ag-organics program tell me pesticide producers could potentially get arround requirements to label ingredients as "active" by not advertising them to be.
So does Nuke em work? If so, what makes it work and how? What are its modes of action? and why is it so damn expensive?

The ingredients are listed by weight, so lets brake down a gallon of Nuke em.
1 gallon of water is 3780 grams, so
0.05% citric acid comes out to 1.89 grams per gallon.
9.43% yeast is 0.7858lbs per gallon
0.02% of potassium Sorbate is 0.756 grams ger gallon.

Even at the hydro stop, I get 1.6lb of citric acid cystals of 16$, so if my math is right, 1.89 grams is 4 cents worth of citric acid.
Brewer's yeast is about 7$/lb so 0.7858lb of yeast comes out to $5.50
I found potassium sorbate @ $18.50/lb (shiping included) on google. If my math is right again, that 0.756 grams costs 3 cents.
$0.04
$5.50
$0.03
$5.57 of active and inactive ingredients in a gallon of concentrate that retails for $55!
Of course that cost doesn't take into account labor, packaging, distribution and overhead on the manufacturing facility, but unless there is something missing here, this seems like an easy recipe to replicate.

Do anny of y'all have any thoughts on this product?
am I missing something here?
Feel free to share your experiences with Nuke em, success and failures!


EDIT: I looked a bit closer at the second label and noticed "Nuke em is not registered with the US Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Its formula qualifies for exemption under FIFRA section 25 (b) as a minimum risk pesticide. "
This may be why they can change their label's active ingredient claims.

Click to expand...

vostok said:

My post above now 2 years old to the week? may now be outta date

so re check them contents

I have since gone to NEEM OIL

as it suites my organics

good luck

Click to expand...

Colo MMJ said:

I do Neem as a preventable with a little Rosemary oil, Bronner's Peppermint soap (which is more oil than soap) and a drop or two of dawn with 1 gallon of water. I sometimes add other known mite killing oils like peppermint, lemon grass, clove, cedarwood. A few drops.

Click to expand...

• Insecticidal Soap (also called Potassium Soap) (10-20ml)
• Distilled Water (1L)
• Yeast (fresh brewery yeast or dry yeast) (20g)
• Lemon Juice (8.5ml)
• Potassium Sorbate (500mg)
• Sodium Benzoate (500mg)

• Make 1L of insecticidal soap solution according to instructions for your insecticidal soap. (Typical is 10-20ml insecticidal soap for 1L water). (I use distilled water since with water from the tap the soap can sometimes form suds and flake)
• Add 8.5ml of Lemon Juice. Lemon Juice contains 5-6% of citric acid, so this comes to 0.05% of citric acid for 1L solution. You could also use citric acid directly, but why bother as everyone really has lemon juice.
• Dissolve yeast in the solution. I have no information about the exact amount of yeast to use, but I would add about 20g. Reason being that the yeast comes before the “Soap” (respective “potassium salts of fatty acids”) in the ingredient list for Nuke’Em. As we know we should use 10-20g of soap, take about the same amount or a little more of Yeast.
• Add 500mg of Sodium Benzoate
• Add 500mg of Potassium Sorbate

flexy123 said:

Hello, I was doing some “research” yesterday and I am “shocked” a) about the price for Nuke ‘Em, and the extremely simple ingredients and how simple it is to make yourself. Here is my DIY Nuke ‘Em recipe. (You can get these ingredients very cheap in stores which carry soap making stuff and on ebay)

Screw’Em - Insecticide and Fungicide

(Against aphids such as spider mites, broad- and russet mites, thrips, whitefly etc. Also prevents mould, fungus and powdery mildew. Safe, non-toxic, can also be used on buds and can also prevent mould on buds after harvest)

INGREDIENTS

• Insecticidal Soap (also called Potassium Soap) (10-20ml)
• Distilled Water (1L)
• Yeast (fresh brewery yeast or dry yeast) (20g)
• Lemon Juice (8.5ml)
• Potassium Sorbate (500mg)
• Sodium Benzoate (500mg)

I am using Insecticidal Soap for a long time for spraying , I assume the added ingredients in Nuke ‘Em are to give the spray more oomph. The Lemon Juice, the Potassium Sorbate and the Sodium Benzoate are preservatives for the solution but they also prevent mold, fungus, powdery mildew etc. which IMO insecticidal soap alone can’t do. There may also be other insecticidal effects from these ingredients. The Yeast is possibly added so that bugs which are not instantly killed are eating the stuff so that the spray has a double-effect, which may be needed for some more difficult critters like broad mites.

I established the percentages based on the label for Nuke’Em and other info I found on the web, eg. what a typical percentage for Potassium Sorbate etc. is…so this may not be 100% accurate like in the original, but it should do.

INSTRUCTIONS

• Make 1L of insecticidal soap solution according to instructions for your insecticidal soap. (Typical is 10-20ml insecticidal soap for 1L water). (I use distilled water since with water from the tap the soap can sometimes form suds and flake)
• Add 8.5ml of Lemon Juice. Lemon Juice contains 5-6% of citric acid, so this comes to 0.05% of citric acid for 1L solution. You could also use citric acid directly, but why bother as everyone really has lemon juice.
• Dissolve yeast in the solution. I have no information about the exact amount of yeast to use, but I would add about 20g. Reason being that the yeast comes before the “Soap” (respective “potassium salts of fatty acids”) in the ingredient list for Nuke’Em. As we know we should use 10-20g of soap, take about the same amount or a little more of Yeast.
• Add 500mg of Sodium Benzoate
• Add 500mg of Potassium Sorbate

NOTES

If you want to make larger batches: Above is for 1L. 1 gal = 3.785L.

As this contains preservatives, it should be possible to make this spray and store for some time.

Use a good garden sprayer for spraying. A manual garden pressure sprayer is much better than these dinky hand sprayers. If you don’t have a pressure sprayer, trust me the $15 or whatever they cost is well worth it.

Use the usual precautions, like not spraying in direct sun, spray either at night before lights off or even better early in the morning. Spray your plants well, also the underside of the leaves. I am using insecticidal soap against aphids etc. for a long time and it has never in any way, harmed the plants. The list of ingredients for this DIY looks safe to me, and should also be safe on buds, unlike eg. Neem which would give your buds an awful taste. This DIY spray should also be good not only for aphids but also for mould, fungus, powdery mildew etc.

Try it and let us know! These ingredients, if you already have the insecticidal soap should only cost a few bucks, and this should be good for making tons of this stuff that should last you for a long time.

Click to expand...