Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Gday all,

My first post.. so first of all - hello from Melbourne / Australia!

We grow chillies and basil in a small vegie patch but unfortunately it is infested with caterpillars. Hand picking is not effective as there are many small ones that can hardly be seen.

Yesterday we found a large-ish caterpillar (1 inch) and I decided to test something on it, after I'd removed it from the plant. I squeezed half a lemon into slightly less than a cup of water, added some chilli flakes, black pepper and a drop of dish washing liquid. Mixed it up and poured a little bit on the 1 inch caterpillar. He died within 10 seconds.

I'm hesitant to spray my plants with it though.

Is this mixture likely to harm my plants if I spray it on?

The mixture also readily kills ants and a couple of bug varieties that I found in the backyard so hence my hesitation - it seems potent.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Munkee, I don't know about harming the plants, but the soap can be fatal to fish. So, aquaponicists try to avoid soap sprays on their systems.

Welcome to the forum


Edit: to fix up a typo, thanks C1

Hi Munkee

Agree with Jamie as there are a lot of additives in detergent. Perhaps you could find a more eco friendly surfactant and run the test again.

Jaymie was that can be fatal or can't be fatal??

What about dipel in aquaponics? That should be OK shouldn't it?
Once you've got rid of the beasts you could cover with net curtains from the op shop. That's what I do on my cabbages.

You might test a very small amount on a couple leaves of some plants to see if it burns them (many sprays can be hard on plants, particularly in hot sunny weather, and different types of plants can have different reactions.)

As Jaymie says, the soap or detergent can be quite dangerous to fish.

I've fixed up my typo, thanks C1

Dipel is good to use.

Hi Munkeecookie
Welcome to the forum..
I have some nice chillies in my AP system, they are fruiting very well.
What type of chillies do you grow?

Many years ago I know a guy who used a simple mixture to get rid of bugs...said it worked for nearly everything.
I tried it for moths and caterpillers on my orange tree and it worked.
Milk. Full cream may be the best, sprayed on the leaves. When the milk goes sour the bugs hate it and leave safely.
The spray is not poisonous and is inert once washed into the soil.
Dont know if it could harm fish though.
Ciao

What about the natural soap? Its vegetable derived surfactant. 'Natural' and it breaks down.

my understanding is that any surfactant is bad for fish.
happy to be corrected on that

Surfactant is Baaaad Mmmkay

Even natural or biodeagradable needs to degrade before adding fish.

My fish found that out

lethicin as far as I am aware

I know a milk spray is also good against powdery mildew. I believe for that skim milk will work and probably can even be diluted like 1 part water and 1 part milk.

I have seen several post reguarding spraying on skim milk to stop mildew. Does that really work? I lost all 75 peaches on my tree last year to mildew (wet year).