Greasing the Bugs
November 10th, 2008Can I Heat the Oil to Boiling First?
Every day contains the promise of an exciting discovery, especially when you are both ignorant and curious.
Here is my latest discovery: petroleum oil.
The county where I live is literally overwhelmed with plant plagues. We have scale insects, several types of thrips, several types of whiteflies, an incurable tomato virus, fusarium, phytophthora, a ficus blight, citrus canker, citrus greening, sooty mold, red algae, aphids, carpenter ants, termites, spider mites, rust mites, citrus mites, hornworms, grubs, and a bunch of other things I am too lazy to mention. And you can forget finding a poison that kills all the bugs or a spray that fixes the diseases. One bug hates this poison. Another bug hates that poison. Some poisons actually make the bugs worse by killing their enemies.
There are lots of organic remedies. Unfortunately, they are expensive and useless. They do absolutely nothing. Most of the time.
It turns out there is a safe remedy that may actually solve a lot of my problems. It’s called petroleum oil. Scott’s sells this stuff; it says “Volck oil” on the label. It’s some sort of highly refined petroleum derivative you spray on plants. It suffocates the bugs. It kills whiteflies, so that means it may be helpful in the fight against the diseases they bring. It kills mites. It kills aphids. I have to try this stuff. So that is my mission for the day. Oil the bugs.
Whoops. Dang. You’re not supposed to apply it on windy days, and today the wind is crazy. So I guess my mission is to buy Volck oil and wait for the wind to die.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:31 PM
I found this more interesting than the actual availability of the product on the Ace hardware web site:
ORTHO “VOLK” OIL SPRAY
Our policy regarding the sale of products to the State of California:*
The state of California has informed us that we must comply with legislation that applies to the sale of all pesticides into California. The recently enacted law requires us to register as a dealer, pay a 2.1% environmental protection fee (“mill” tax) on all pesticide sales, report these sales (or lack of sales) quarterly and retain records of these sales for four years.
Therefore, we will no longer sell *pesticide* products to California.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Organic remedies are definitely pretty useless on the whole; I speak from experience given my job in agriculture. I have a tendency to laugh heartily at the people who strive to buy organic for a variety of reasons. I work in plant path, so I’m mostly familiar with the fungal and bacterial diseases (though of northeastern plants, not necessarily the ones in your region)… but you’re absolutely right, oil works brilliantly against insects. We use Damoil on our trees; I’m not sure if that’s a brand name or what, but it is commercially available. Kaolin applications work too, though not as well as the oil (I think the commercial name is Surround; not sure if it’s commercially available or not).
I could come up with a list for you if you’d like, with regard to the pathogens I know about. It would take awhile, as I’m going to school in addition to working full time, but I’d be happy to.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:31 PM
This orange tastes like Mobil One.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:11 PM
I’ve gotta go grease Wheezer.
http://seoblog.intrapromote.com/wheezer2.jpeg
November 10th, 2008 at 5:20 PM
Funny thing about petroleum oil and kaolin is that while they are not “organic” (although oil is an organic compound) they are natural.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Isn’t waiting for a windless day in South Florida like waiting for a rainless day in Seattle?
November 11th, 2008 at 2:23 AM
soap and water made into a spray can do serious damage to white flies & aphids too. But be careful you don’t burn the plants. We’re usually too hot & dry for white flies, sometimes they pop up, then they are devastating.
November 11th, 2008 at 6:52 AM
I use Diatomaceous Earth. Works great on all the chewing hoppers ( in solution ) crawlers ( dust ) bird mites, and I even worm the dogs with it.
My Dad used to mix it into the soil around his fruit trees and it kept the grubs away.
Not a perfect solution to everything, but it works on bugs that crawl through it or ingest it.
I use the “food grade” type, just because I mix it with the dog food and bird feed.