I’m thinking that would work. I have an all purpose spray that works on most of the insects around here:
Chop up an onion and a handfull of garlic cloves and put them in a quart jar. Add a few tsp of cayenne pepper, and fill the jar with hot boiling water. Let it sit overnight.
Strain and add a couple of drops of dish washing liquid and a couple of drops of oil to the liquid. Put it into a spray bottle and shake it up before using.
I was very skeptical of this when I tried it. Just after I filled the spray bottle the first time, I saw a bug running across the basement floor, squirted him, and 30 seconds later he was laying belly up dead as a doornail.
Exciting times here this week. Hubby killed a copperhead last night. Of course, the big slobber bucket had to sniff all over where it was blown to bits. I'm expecting one to find me in the garden the way I've been pulling weeds. It's ridiculous how fast they grow. Every year same thing. They grow faster than the vegetable seeds do so they shade them out and all I have to show are weeds. You've seen those paintings of women out in the fields with bushels of wheat in their arms, that's me with weeds. Every morning, bushels and bushels. Still no end in sight. Of course, I'm accidentally pulling up volunteer tomatoes with the weeds so am sticking them in the ground wherever and it's up to them to recover. The little green tomatoes from last week are still green so hoping they'll ripen when the nephews get here next weekend.
I found some poison ivy a couple days ago so had hubby dig it up. I'm greatly surprised I'm not all broken out but now that I've said it, I'll probably get into some tomorrow. Crossing fingers and knocking wood.
The garlic is drying and needs to be braided.
Had some little bitty corn from the garden for supper last night. Tasted like candy, yum! I sampled the two blackberries the birds left me and can't wait until they've matured next year. They're sending out branches and rooting themselves so all’s good. I need to maintain the fence they're supposed to grow on because every fence here is destined to have a multitude of invasive vines growing on them. No matter the mowing or chopping or Round-Up or pulling, there WILL be vines. I don't think the berries will be able to eventually take over so don't know how that battle will turn out.
Will be picking the first cuke in a couple days. I ran out of fungicide and need to get some more for the cukes. They normally don't get the ick on their leaves until the end of summer so don't know what's going on.
Something ate through the mustard greens. Something happened to the cilantro overnight. It's like it decided life just wasn't worth living and poof! But the ginger is popping up nicely. And the cabbage looks like it's thinking of heading.
I have a mystery plant, too. Found it in the asparagus this morning. It has little miniature pepper looking fruit on it though I've never planted anything like that. A neighbor a few streets over has some ornamental peppers so maybe a bird was sharing. Will have to investigate but it's probably all kinds of poisonous. I've told y'all about the cardinals who wait for me to turn on the garden sprinkler, well this morning there were about 10 dove waiting to play in the water, too.
Ooh, mama kitty is still has an attitude. If it weren't for the kittens I wouldn't feed her. Though I think it's mainly because she's skin and bones from feeding her babies. The kittens are walking around now, though not straying from the corner she has them in. One's back legs aren't operating well but maybe he needs a couple more days to catch up to his sibling so here's hoping that's all it is. They're coming to me so I'm picking them up despite mama's growls and hisses. When I was in the garden this morning, two neighborhood dogs, soaking wet from the river, came by to say hello. Then I noticed one was leaving the garage. Yikes, he'd been in there drinking mama kitty's water (which she never drinks)! Wet paw prints to the water bowl and back out so I don't think he realized the cats were right there. Our monsters still don't have a clue but I'm going to have to introduce the kittens to them soon because the smaller one kills any creature that comes into the yard. Can't have that. Sweet as anything but it's HER yard. A simple introduction and she's fine. Plus having cats around will help with the snakes.
The problem with garlic is it kills pretty much everything. When I’m going after aphids, like I did yesterday on the squash, I use a tea made from tomato leaves. The tomato tea doesn’t kill the lady bugs, which eat aphids.