{"id":990,"date":"2025-03-25T22:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T21:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/?p=990"},"modified":"2025-03-25T22:49:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T21:49:27","slug":"mildly-insecticidal-spray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/?p=990","title":{"rendered":"Mildly insecticidal spray"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m trying Alocasias again after finding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=i_iS8w1k8Pw\">this<\/a> method with Sphagnum &amp; leca. However, when I got home from the plant store with my newly bought Alocasia cuprea, I found out that it had thrips. I thoroughly showered the plant and removed all the soil (microwaved for later re-use) and repotted with the new method. I couldn&#8217;t find any more thrips after that, but to be safe I wanted to try a mild insecticide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A retired botanist in the comments under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cvOBUu2RQiE\">this<\/a> video recommended a 200 mL leaf spray using 13 drops of lavender essential oil, 19 drops of lemongrass essential oil and 5-7 mL rubbing oil (to emulsify). I don&#8217;t have lemongrass oil, but I do have lavender and a few other somewhat insecticidal oils. Also, instead of rubbing alcohol I have bio-ethanol which I think should work similarly well as an emulsifier and contact killer for some pests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I&#8217;m trying this leaf spray:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>32 drops of essential oil (~0.8%):\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>15 drops lavender (somewhat effective against thrips as well as mites)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>9 drops rosemary (mostly effective against spider mites)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5 drops tea tree (antifungal, effective against spider mites)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3 drops lemon (somewhat effective against thrips)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>6 mL 95% bio-ethanol (~3%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 drops of mild dish soap<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>distilled water to 200 mL<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It does smell nice, although I know it&#8217;s not very healthy to inhale so I spray somewhere with good ventilation that I know nobody will be in for a while. Also citrus oils can cause phototoxicity so I should only spray in the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s see if the plant survives the repotting and leaf spraying, and if the pests stay away so it can graduate from quarantine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m trying Alocasias again after finding this method with Sphagnum &amp; leca. However, when I got home from the plant store with my newly bought Alocasia cuprea, I found out that it had thrips. I thoroughly showered the plant and removed all the soil (microwaved for later re-use) and repotted with the new method. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-houseplants-hydroponics","category-uncat-houseplant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":994,"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invar.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}