The Best Stuff Ever!!!

[articuno75]

I took all my newly bought chids and looked at the medium...
REPOT!!!

So.... I grab one orchid, clean it, repot. Noooo biggy. Next one,,, piece of cake . Then I grab The Burr. Dee Luce. OMG.....Everything known to man and then some was in that thing....

I'm talking snails with no shells, beetles, ants and yours truly, La Coo ka ra cha cockroach

I bout passed out.

Luckily I had made a batch of Brookn's dishsoap recipe in a big arse bowl and soaked them in it first. NO JOKE, It kills critters on contact. Even slugs and snails. I think it has to do with the extract. Don't know. All I know IT WORKS, I LIKE IT AND I'M STICKING TO IT....

Brookn, your mad science pays.....

[jbigio]

I must have missed that one can you post what in it
Joe

[articuno75]

10 drops dishsoap
1.8 ml cinnamon extract (about 1/2 tsp.)
2 cups tepid water

adjust ingredients as needed.

This is great for cleaning leaves, bacteria and fungal infections, bug teterrant, and now bug and slug killer !

[patticake]

Oh wow, I think I would have had a cow. I have a pretty strong stomach for worms, etc., outdoors- But critters in a pot would freak me out! (except fungus gnats, maybe!) You soaked them before un-potting them and then found the dead critters? ewwww- I'm gonna use that recipe.....writing it down right now... Thanks Jenny- and Brookn, too!

[articuno75]

It was gross. But watching the critters surface and scramble for their very lives, only to go into a death rattle and fall back into the mix. It was creepy, but great. Pest free botanicals is all I care about.

I do have to make a note...It doesn't work on silverfish. (When I say everything was in that pot I meant it.) It slowed it down and stunned it, but didn't kill it. Man,,,, it was a fast littler booger too.

[brookn]

Jenny that was soo funny!! Yes mad science pays, you saw my bellina and Penang Girl? They looked cruddy until I stared my recipe on them. I have a pulled muscle in my, well arse (and a pinched nerve, I fell on the ice), right now, so leaning forward to type hurts, but I had to respond. I HATE bugs, especially slugs, so I am glad that the recipe worked well for bug slaughter. I am still laughing, nobody here but the dogs and they are looking at me funny. I have to sit way back from the desk and lean to one side of the chair to be able to sit and read the posts, and now I am laughing like a mad woman, I must look very strange hee hee.

[articuno75]

OMG. You should have seen me. It was something out of a Tom & Jerry cartoon with the Nanny woman jumping on a chair and everything! It was NASTY! Hilarious, but seriously nasty.

We're going through the ice now lights flickering and everything. I hope you get to feeling better soon!

[PhalPal]

Oh Jenny that is the grossest thing I have even heard!! EEEWWWWWW!!! What kind of grower would send a plant out in that condition??? Pick some bugs off for heaven sake!
I don't want to think about what their greehouse must look like. Eeeewww again.

[kmarch]

I'm with you PhalPal....maybe it's ok for outside growing (my outdoor cymbids have roaches in them...gish...) but for the house!?!?!?. Here in Australia we have these giant roaches, about an inch long which I occasionally enounter in one of my outdiir orchids. They freak me out!

[articuno75]

I so did not want to know that. I'm going to have nightmares now.

[patlee]

Boy, am I ever glad I read this thread I would like to think my three cats would go after any creepy-crawly, but I always squirt-gun them if they so much as go near the orchids. So I guess I really can't rely on them!

I've repotted a few and have had no problems, but I still have not touched the Burr.(which is sitting in my bedroom--ugh! cockroaches-double ugh!) At least I know what to do and have Brookn's recipe. THANK YOU BROOKN & JENNY!!!

[BunnytheOrchid]

UGH maybe I'm not brave enough for orchids.
I don't think I would have handled that as well as you
Whew thank goodness for clear plastic containers!!!!

[articuno75]

When it got that serious, I had my lovey dovey and son dive in to the rescue! Ain't nooooo way I was touching it, I'm chicken. What I would do is dip the plants pot and all, wait a few minutes, remove plants from dip, then they would depot it and remove the media. (Just in case there were any more) I would turn brave again and repot with fresh~good stuff.

[Anton]

ONLY an inch Kevin ????

I get 1 1/2" to 1 3/4" monsters in my GH regularly, that's what was eating my Rossioglossum and Coelogyne bulbs.

I have several roach baits in there now and regularly spray roach surface spray to keep the buggers at bay. No idea how they get in.

The States only has little tackers, when I was living the the accommodation block at Johns Hopkins they were everywhere from the Asian students cooking in their rooms.

We had to vacate the rooms once a month for fumigation.

Ozzie roaches are REAL roaches.

[BunnytheOrchid]

Haha articuno75 I have the opposite relationship with my mom! When I go home from school, if there's a bug, I run for mommy! Even at 20!! I can't help it!!

[articuno75]

Originally Posted by Anton

ONLY an inch Kevin ????

I get 1 1/2" to 1 3/4" monsters in my GH regularly, that's what was eating my Rossioglossum and Coelogyne bulbs.

I have several roach baits in there now and regularly spray roach surface spray to keep the buggers at bay. No idea how they get in.

The States only has little tackers, when I was living the the accommodation block at Johns Hopkins they were everywhere from the Asian students cooking in their rooms.

We had to vacate the rooms once a month for fumigation.

Ozzie roaches are REAL roaches.

LoL. You guys never seen the ones down in the southern U.S. then. They fly. I think that's what terrorized me as a child. Try taking a shower and have this two inch black creepy crawly come out of the drain hole then fly at your face when your 9 yrs. old! I screamed and jumped out of the tub. LoL. Thing was I jumped staight into the shower curtain and pulled it down on top of me. Still gives me the E B G Bs......EEEwwww.

[waldofrumpki]

was the orchid kept outside where you bought it? if not, that's kind of scary that they would have so many pests inside. Sounds like you need some sort of buggy predator, like a frog, or a toad, or a praying mantis, or a duck (they like slugs), or....

...ok, that might be a bit excessive

[tom499]

Ahhh one of the joys of living in the UK

Biggest bug we get are dragonflies, and there just great to watch

I do hate slugs and snails though, but a spade or bamboo cane, and a torch, and I can be out there all night in the summer protecting the garden

[tizzycat]

I'm with you Tom, on this occasion I'm glad I'm where I am

[patlee]

Jenny, I've been soaking my Burr. in Brookn's potion for well over an hour (up to the rim--have got floating medium). There is nary a creepy-crawly in sight.YEAH!!

How long before you saw your "visitors" (Course, I haven't repotted,yet...Maybe I'll find a bunch of corpses) TOO BAD, LOL!!

[articuno75]

They came a scrambling almost IMMEDIATELY and then died. If you don't see anything by now, then I'd say that It's safe to say there's nothing in the pot. I dipped and repotted everything I bought. I'm not about to take any chances.

[mdomingz]

Hey, you can imagine how it is down here in the tropics, specially now with the new rainy season approaching. Everything that can fly will fly (yes, including some roaches!!!), or crawl, or just come up the walls! My advice would be, get some geckoes. They are the reason i have no bugs in my outdoor orchids! (wait a minute... oh, yes, i just only have outdoor orchids!) I have to admit, they freak me out, but they are way better than root or leave or worse yet, flower eating bugs. They seem to love to live or just hang out in the medium (mostly shreded coconut husks, ground coconut husk and small pieces of tree fern in wooden baskets). And they love to lick the sweet sap on the flower spikes too.

Anyway at some point i think i'll try the dishwasher recipe, just to make sure there will be no extra visitors my geckoes can't reach!

manuel
panama

[sandra]

Originally Posted by articuno75

10 drops dishsoap
1.8 ml cinnamon extract (about 2 tsp.)
2 cups tepid water

I'm filing this recipe away. Thanks Jenny and brookn for this. Don't think it would have made a difference though when I found that centipede in my cacti arrangement....maybe a gun would have or maybe Andrew Zimmer from Bizarre Foods would have liked it for a mid afternoon snack.

Going to try this concoction on the leaves. Thanks again girls.

[patlee]

Thanks, Jenny. The uglies must have all gone to your pot--I repotted and knocked out most of the old medium. Absolutely no trace of anything that had once been alive Thanks for taking care of all those (yech!!!) bugs Remember how I reacted to just a little slug?

P.S. Our son comes back from his six months in Japan today. In memory of the trip, I think I'll have to pick up a neo... Who's the cheapest with good quality? New World or should I go to ebay?

[kellyincville]

New World has some 3 growth Amami and 2 growth Momo Hime (pink!) for $30/each. Can you tell I've been planning an order with them?

I do not have much experience with ebay.

[articuno75]

Patlee~ If you what to look for a variety I suggest to go to New World. Dr. Lehr also has the regular Fu-Ran kind for $10-15 and up I believe.

[patticake]

Wow- With the size of some of the bugs you folks are talking about, you could put saddles on dem bad boys and go for a ride! There are advantages to living in the great Northeast. We have puney bugs!

[PhalPal]

Our bugs are pretty wimpy too, except for the occasional tarantula. I haven't seen one of those in a while since I have grown out of the stage of looking under rocks. (and NOT so long ago...)

[Vivienne]

has anyone tried this on scale??

[articuno75]

Yes. I did on my Phal Penang Girl 'Ching Ruey'. But I cannot confirm that it was this stuff alone that killed it off cause I was also using worm tea on it at the same time.

Total time to kill it (scale, not plant ) was about 48 hrs. and it just wiped right off. That's speedy!!!

[chefatplay]

Once again, boy am I glad I ran across this thread. I have what I think is a little fungus on the leaves of two phals. We have had some heavy rainfall lately. I have been keeping my orchids under a giant philadendrum in the front yard. I don't think I have enough light for the amount of water. I just cut some of the philadendrum leaves out so there will be more dappled sunlight for my babies, but I am going to make this concoction tomorrow and spray everybody but my brassia. I have a frog living in it. I'll show you.


This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, look at him now!

Ahhhhh!!!

[Vivienne]

That is too cute!!!

[Vivienne]

Thanks Jenny! I can't find my bottle of Safe Soap anywhere!

[MLP]

can anyone tell me where to buy the cinnamon extract? I'm only finding cinnamon in pill form.

thank you for you time,
Lisa

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Anton

ONLY an inch Kevin ????
I get 1 1/2" to 1 3/4" monsters in my GH regularly, that's what was eating my Rossioglossum and Coelogyne bulbs.

Oh joy....I suppose this just means I have something to look forward to?
I can hardly wait

At least they don't have venom that can kill you before you get to the hospital like some of the other Australian creepy crawlies.

[patlee]

MLP, I get it at Wal Mart--in the section with all the other spices. Hope your store carries it. It works wonders

[MLP]

ah, how obvious! thanks!! will check it out tomorrow,
tks

[clxt7321]

Jenny, I am confused by your "best stuff ever" recipe.

You say 1.8 ml cinnamon extract(2 tsp)


1 tsp is 5 ml did you mean 18 ml???

[articuno75]

Originally Posted by clxt7321

Jenny, I am confused by your "best stuff ever" recipe.

You say 1.8 ml cinnamon extract(2 tsp)


1 tsp is 5 ml did you mean 18 ml???

It's a typo. It is 1.8 ml or 1/2 tsp. Adjust ingredients as needed. Good catch.

EDIT] Brookn's Dish Soap Recipe

10 drops dishsoap
1.8 ml cinnamon extract (about 1/2 tsp.)
2 cups tepid water

adjust ingredients as needed.

This is great for cleaning leaves, bacteria and fungal infections, bug teterrant, and now bug and slug killer !

[cytojo]

Jenny;

Happy to come across this thread.

Just to clarify, the recipe is:

10 drops of dishsoap
1/2 tsp (1.8 ml) cinnamon (from the spice isle at the store)
2 cups of tepid water.

Now, do I store this mixture in a spray bottle or make it fresh each time?

Joanne

[articuno75]

Well, I keep a small bottle of it handy in case of buggies, (yuck) so I can spray them. Then I make some when ever needed for cleaning and pretreating. I use it to clean the leaves and treat and pretreat for fungus and disease. I don't know if Brookn keeps a bottle off hand. I do know that it kills slugs, flys, gnats, and cockroaches~ (From soaking the pot). I had mites on my Cyms, but got rid of them. I don't know if it was from the mix though because I also treated with Bayer 3 in 1.

I just make enough that I'm going to use at the time, usually about a 1/2 gallon to a gallon or so. The recipe is very flexible.

[brookn]

Hi I mostly make it on the fly, and I don't do a whole lot of measurement on it, I tweak it to my needs. I use it on my plants in spray form all the time. I keep a bottle made up, and it is fine for a few weeks, I do notice after a few weeks, the smell of it changes (it will smell kind of fermented), and that is when I pour it out and make a new batch. This usually coincides with the bottle being close to empty though .

[patticake]

Originally Posted by cytojo

Jenny;

Happy to come across this thread.

Just to clarify, the recipe is:

10 drops of dishsoap
1/2 tsp (1.8 ml) cinnamon (from the spice isle at the store)
2 cups of tepid water.

Now, do I store this mixture in a spray bottle or make it fresh each time?

Joanne

I think one of the questions was, do you use cinnamon- (the powder) or is it bottled cinnamon extract- similar to vanilla?

[articuno75]

The extract.

[articuno75]

So people can look at it to refresh the noggin

This makes a good air freshener too.

[digitalgate]

can someone try this on spider mites?

[articuno75]

Digital,

I did, but you have to retreat about a week later. It doesn't kill the eggs. I'll show you a pic of the plant here in a bit.

[articuno75]

Okay,
Here are pics of my Den. Yellow Song 'Canary' (Recovery Buddy ). It got attacked here about a couple of weeks ago. I sprayed it and left it on for about 1/2 hour, then I rinsed it off. Then I treated it again a week later.

Needless to say, no critters. You can see the damage. Luckily, yet unfortunately, they only got two leaves.

I made the recipe a little stronger than usual. Adding more soap and a full tablespoon of extract to a 24 oz. spray bottle.

I'll be updating the project thread as well.

[JLu]

Hey Anton, we have those big roaches too. I grew up with them in Florida. Every night when the DDT truck went by spraying for mosquitoes, the roaches would start flying around the living room. Here we were trying to watch an old B&W TV in the dark and dodging roaches that take off well but only land by flying into something, which you try not to be you.

We don't have 'em in Kentucky though. I think the rednecks killed 'em off with fumes from meth labs.

[kid a]

I just found cinnamon extract at a super walmart here in Indiana for a little more than three dollars. It is a McCormick brand and the box said NEW on it. I had been having a hard time trying to find it for a month I looked and looked and looked and then had the genius idea to check there. I had checked at all the grocery stores and even a few of those herbal/natural stores. The only thing I came up with was a 2 oz bottle of it for homeopathic purposes to be ingested from a dropper for $13 a bottle! I said no thanks. I was supprised at all the stores I looked at they seemed to have everything except for cinnamon extract. But it does work great. I may have used to much though. I used the whole bottle for a 24 oz spray bottle that may be why some of my good root tips shriveled a bit, not all of them did just a few. I made sure i rinsed really well afterward and knocked out my pest issue.I was thinking two tsp per cup even though it said per 2 cups *yikes!*. I should have written it down, lol! I ended up just dumping the whole bottle in (a little overboard maybe?) Things look ok so far should I be concerned for using that much???

[orchid_girl]

Originally Posted by articuno75

10 drops dishsoap
1.8 ml cinnamon extract (about 2 tsp.)
2 cups tepid water

adjust ingredients as needed.

This is great for cleaning leaves, bacteria and fungal infections, bug teterrant, and now bug and slug killer !

Can this be used on all tropical plants? I have some plants that need a good cleaning and I was wondering. Does it matter what kind of dish soap?

[articuno75]

Originally Posted by orchid_girl

Can this be used on all tropical plants? I have some plants that need a good cleaning and I was wondering. Does it matter what kind of dish soap?

Me and Brookn both use it on everything and have seen no ill effects

Be sure that the dishsoap is phosphate free.


Edit] Brookn's Dish Soap Recipe

10 drops dishsoap
1.8 ml cinnamon extract (about 1/2 tsp.)
2 cups tepid water

adjust ingredients as needed.

This is great for cleaning leaves, bacteria and fungal infections, bug teterrant, and now bug and slug killer !

[Orchidementia]

Thanks for kicking this up. Knock wood, nothing disgusting so far, but I did have a garden snail on the balcony last week which I attacked with my peppermint soap/alcohol/water mix that I use for aphids on the big fuchsia (all dead, knocking wood again so loud the neighbor just said, "Come in!"). After reading that this recipe dissolves the little bastards, I'm going to make some tonight.

[orchid_girl]

Originally Posted by Orchidementia

Thanks for kicking this up. Knock wood, nothing disgusting so far, but I did have a garden snail on the balcony last week which I attacked with my peppermint soap/alcohol/water mix that I use for aphids on the big fuchsia (all dead, knocking wood again so loud the neighbor just said, "Come in!"). After reading that this recipe dissolves the little bastards, I'm going to make some tonight.

Can you give me your recipe for the aphid killer? I hate using poison but it seems thats all I have at this moment to use.

[articuno75]

Originally Posted by orchid_girl

Can you give me your recipe for the aphid killer? I hate using poison but it seems thats all I have at this moment to use.

This will work on them too.

Orchidmentia, why don't you go ahead and post your recipe too.

[Orchidementia]

Okay, here it is:

1 part 70% rubbing alcohol
3 parts water
1 tablespoonish Dr Bronner's Peppermint soap (All One!)
(any kind of SOAP can be used - but don't use detergent; peppermint oils are very unattractive to aphids, according to my botanist friend)

[articuno75]

Cool

Now we got 2 recipes and I'm going to give this one a try as well. Have you tried it on other critters?

[Orchidementia]

I've tried it on: gnats, fruit flies, garden snails and anything that gets near my big fuchsia.

[PalmCityOrchid]

Thanks for the recipe! I just found some spider mite damage. I did not know what it was until I saw Jenny's pics - I also have black ants everywhere and today I found new ants - bigger ones - yikes!!! I think they came in some chids from Hawaii - not too sure.

How long should I soak the pots for? And once the boogers are crawling out, do I re-spray them with the spary bottle as they swim to the top?!

[articuno75]

Vanny~ the recipe is very flexible. In the very beginning of the thread I talk with Patlee about soaking a couple of orchids. You can soak for up to an hour if needed. I mixed the recipe and the bugs/slugs were dying pretty much instantly.

If you need to, add or subtract what you need to make the recipe work for you. I never use more than a tablespoon of extract to any of my mixes that I make....If that gives you any help.

[PalmCityOrchid]

Thanks so much Jenny!

[mkduncan]

Does anyone know what happens when u use too muh extract? I used 1.5 tsp per 24 oz water.

[markclkk]

Originally Posted by mkduncan

Does anyone know what happens when u use too muh extract? I used 1.5 tsp per 24 oz water.

Mmmm It forces human to evacuate the perimeter too. It also clean up mold and damping-off fungus.

[articuno75]

Never made it in a 24 oz. size with 1.5 tsp. I've done 1 teaspoon, but not 1.5

Shouldn't cause any problems. Keep your eyes on the leaves for mottling just in case.

[Mallardman]

T_T well all hope is lost for my phalanopsis hybrid the plant is dying but the other one still lives

[flowerchild]

Here is another recipe that an orchid grower in our society uses when he brings his orchids back inside: 1 part rubbing alcohol
1 part mineral oil
a couple of drops of ivory dishsoap
then fill the sprayer with water and give a heavy spray. Not only does it kill the bugs, but the mineral oil gives the leaves a nice glossy shine!!!

[11Orchid126]

A word of caution. When you use the mineral oil, keep the plants out of the sun for several days or the leaves will burn. Same is true for horticultural oil and neem.

[patlee]

I routinely use 1-1/2 tsps of extract in an 18 ounce bottle (it may be overkill, but I don't want those buggers in my orchids). I spray daily for two to three weeks before I bring them back inside... Never had any problems and I use it on all my other plants, not just the chids...

[articuno75]

Patlee~ You use 1 and a half of the extract in 18 ounces of water with out problems? I'm just asking cause I've never made it quite that strong with the extract, but have added more soap. I'll make note of this for future reference.

[patlee]

My bad--it's a 24 oz. bottle, but I have no problems. Remember that one slug I found and how freaked I got? Now I'm out for blood--hehehe Nothing but orchids in my mounts or pots...

[articuno75]

Originally Posted by patlee

My bad--it's a 24 oz. bottle, but I have no problems. Remember that one slug I found and how freaked I got? Now I'm out for blood--hehehe Nothing but orchids in my mounts or pots...

Hehehe. I still giggle about that one.

[Mallardman]

For those of you that have no cinnamon extract and want to build an emergency supply of it simply follow this recipe. If you don't have time and need the extract now I suggest buying it online.

To make the extract you need

1. 3-4 cinnamon sticks, fresh
2. .5-.75 cups of vodka(any kind will do)
3. 1 cup glass jar(it must be tall then the sticks)

Now here is what you do.

1. Place the vodka and cinnamon sticks in the one cup glass jar(it must be tall enough to hold the sticks).
2. Combine the two ingredients
3. place the mixture in a dark area for 3-4 months(yes I know its a long time)

And there you have it a way to produce cinnamon extract. Also as long as your not using the extract for anything other than a pesticide I suppose you could use rubbing alcohol although I don't know what effect this will have on the extract.

[patticake]

Mallardman, how cool....I'm glad I can find it at our Walmart supercenter! I'm not a patient person by nature.

[Mallardman]

Originally Posted by patticake

Mallardman, how cool....I'm glad I can find it at our Walmart supercenter! I'm not a patient person by nature.

I know isn't chemistry fun?

[patticake]

I used to love to make rock candy and such. Chemistry IS fun!