Re: [CH] Aphids
Gerardo Ametxazurra (ametxa@arrakis.es)
Sun, 01 Feb 1998 15:34:19 +0200
There's a lot of poison around, anyway. Petrol derivates, for example. The
exhaust fumes from a car... If you breathe them straight from the pipe...
there you go! It depends on concentration. We need arsenic to live, but not
the same quantity we need to die!
Maybe the nicotine kills the aphids. But then there should be dead aphids
around the plane, and I don't see any. So my best guess is that the nicotine
acts as a repellent.
=Mark wrote:
> At 11:23 AM 1/31/98 +0200, Gerardo Ametxazurra wrote:
> >Here's what I do to get aphids from my rose bushes
> >(no Chiles planted yet, but will start soon, I
> >hope!).
> >I use the contents of many an ashtray. Put all the
> >butts in a 5 litre bottle and fill it with water.
> >Let it soak and ferment for about a week. I just
> >don't look at it, it's somewhat yecchy... I water
> >the plants with the filtered result (a repulsive
> >brown liquid). The tar and nicotine in the water go
> >up through the roots, and it seems the aphids don't
> >like the taste of the savia at all. No insects are
> >killed. No chemicals are used.
>
> Actually nicotine is a powerful poison, and I suspect is considered a
> chemical. One drop of pure nicotine on the skin can kill a full grown man.
> Nicotine taken up by the plants is no doubt causing the deaths of a few
> aphids.