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From: elmo@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Eric Cabot)
Newsgroups: rec.gardens,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Amazing new insecticide discovered!  :-)
Message-ID: <8963@ur-cc.UUCP>
Date: 16 Aug 90 04:26:15 GMT
References: <3237@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Reply-To: elmo@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Eric Cabot)
Organization: University of Rochester
Lines: 38

In article <3237@syma.sussex.ac.uk> andy@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Andy Clews) writes:
>I'd already heard about the effectiveness of using soap to control
>aphids, and I decided to try it on some of my plants that were infested.
>
>So, I made a solution of bio-degradable washing-up liquid (one large
>squirt to a pint of water) in a spray bottle, and treated the affected areas. 
>To my surprise, the ants seemed to be stopped in the tracks upon contact
>
There is actually a firm in or near Victoria, British Colubia that
has been marketing a line of insecticidal soaps for plants, cats and dogs
under the name of SAFER soaps (TM).  My inside sources at SAFER 
have indicated that these are not very different than ordinary liquid 
dish-soap (with maybe a little bit of perfume for Fido).  As you
have discovered, these soaps are quite effective.

>Can anyone tell me why detergent is apparently so lethal to insects? And

Well the SAFER people have been researching this but their findings
are strictly hush-hush.  My first guess, however would be that
the soap somehow increases the permeablity of the waxy cuticle of
an insect. This causes a poor little bug to dry out and die.

>if this is so, why don't people use it in preference to all those nasty
>chemicals?

Well it could have something to do with the marketing budgets of
companies like Dow and Shell Oil compared to little obscure firms
and knowledge originating in places like The Farmer's Almanac or
the Net.news.  I mean soap is clean how can it kill bugs? Where
as just one whiff of ortho is enough to convince you that the stuff
is lethal.  
>

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Eric Cabot                             |  elmo@{uhura | db1}.cc.rochester.edu
      "insert your face here"          |  elmo@urodbv.bitnet
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