This Organic Pest Control Remedy Is A SCAM! 3 Natural Insecticides That WORK And One That DOESN'T!

Neem Oil isn't meant to be a contact killer. It's for preventing the reproduction and growth of insects. My go to is a combo of dish soap and neem oil. I used this to get my asparagus beetles under control by spraying down the foliage and soaking the soil. One application and I haven't seen any asparagus beetle damage in almost a month.

Hey MG, Mark from Charlotte. As a honeybee keeper, I’ve learned enough about bugs to be dangerous. Just a couple thoughts. Bugs breath through a networks or tubes that exit from the body in rows on each side of the abdomen, called spiracles. Bugs can last quite a while floating in water due to its high surface tension. But add a surface tension reducer, like soap or others like alcohol, the water can then enter the spiracles effectively drowning them . So while I’m not positive, the soap is not a contact killer, it simply provides a low surface fluid to be sucked into the spiracles to drown them. The neem oil in your experiment appears clearly to not be a contact killer, but being oil based increases surface tension preventing the solution from entering the spiracles, so instead of drowning they eventually suffocate. My only concern with soap, which I have investigated in killing moss, is certain concentrations act to dehydrate the plant, folks have said be careful not to kill the grass while trying to kill the moss, but I have not experimented. Since you love experimenting, I would love to see you try a few concentrations of soap, sprayed on plants, to see if you have a negative effect on the leaves. Good job!

I 100%agree with Mark from Charlotte. You need to use all natural soaps like Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap. Cheap soap is a detergent that will suffocate your leaves where as pure castile will not. Check into this product I think you will be pleas3ed with the readings.

I have been using dish soap mainly for aphids and gnats for a couple years now, works great. I also use the dish soap to shoot down wasps and their nest, kills them instantly.

If you found this video helpful, please “Like” and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching :_Dale:TIMESTAMPS for convenience: 0:00 Testing Natural Insect Control Methods 1:51 Pest Control Method #1: Dish Soap 5:17 Pest Control Method #2: Cold Pressed Neem Oil 7:21 Pest Control Method #3: Natural Pyrethrin 10:53 Pest Control Method #4: Organic Spinosad 13:43 Smothering Oil Test 15:09 Grading The Natural Insecticides: Final Results! 18:23 Adventures With Dale

This is by far the best gardening video I've watched. Dish soap! Who knew? So satisfying to hear the plop as the bugs that decimated my zuchini and melons fell to the ground dead. Thank you!

I'm watching this GREAT VIDEO again, as I'm having a spider mite outbreak on indoor plants. THANK YOU for conducting this experiment! At the release of the video in June, I put your info to good use on squash bugs!

Neem oil is a great tool against worms caterpillars etc. It's not a contact killer it's an ingestion killer and it works quite well especially on brassicas

I love your videos. You have a lot of enthusiasm and share valuable information. I hear your struggles being a new gardener in Chapel Hill between pests, humidity and heat. I found your channel looking to see if I could obtain information such as this for my area! I have learned so much!!! Thank you !!!

Neem can be used as a soil drench. I tried it for cucumber beetles, and it worked. 1 gallon of water 2 tbsp of neem oil and a teaspoon of Castile soap mixed very well. I poured it underneath the cucumber plants which had been watered previously. The Beetle population dropped drastically after about a week. Apparently when they eat the leaves they stop feeding because of the neem oil.

A-Plus video! Given the importance of these pesticides and our reluctance to use or overuse them, this was one of the most valuable gardening videos I've ever watched. Bugs are the biggest risk factor to have a harvest at all. A good scientific approach. And I'm pretty happy that the most effective item, dish soap, is also the least expensive! Thank you!

fantastic video, man! Im going to go try the soap in my garden plot now. I used Neem on aphids when i was in Florida and it only works when you put the plant inside and isolate it from getting bugs again, which explains why you have to spray the neem so many times before it actually helps. Thank you for your work!

Neem oil is best used as a preventative. When the cool rainy season starts for us, I mix the neem in a 2-gallon sprayer and give the plants a coating. Before I used neem, I lost whole crops of pie pumpkins to powdery mildew. Neem has also been good at treating aphids on my pepper plants. I've never had a problem with horrendous smell and I'm spraying inside a 72'x30' high tunnel, on a ladder, over and under trellised winter squash.

A very useful and practical approach to pest control in the gardens. I am from the RTP area and pretty much the same bugs during this time of the year. After having tried the usual assortment of methods, found the lure traps to be the most effective for both Japanese beetles and stink bugs that show up in droves and pretty much decimate the entire garden if left unchecked. I still use soapy water spray but that only works with direct contact with the bugs. Like someone else mentioned, I also have noticed that the soap eventually also clogs the pores of the leaves, and depending on the type of plant and the concentrations they yellow out and fall off. I am trying to attract the songbirds like bluebirds, chickadees, and other eastern insect-eating birds with bird-feeders and a water fountain in my environment to have multiple solutions to the bug problems. It is rather very difficult to keep all those pesky critters from free lunch in our gardens😫😫

Thank You! I've been fighting those leaf-footed bugs and their nymphs for months with neem oil and losing the battle. I will definitely try the dish soap immediately. Have you tried using castille soap? Again, thank you.

Great comparison. I prefer Safer Soap (made with potasium hydroxide and fats rather than sodium hydroxide) now that I've had a chance to use it instead of dish soap. It also fertilizes the plants if used properly in evening and not to heavily, to adequately watered plants. Not residually toxic to anything but bugs and if YOU get too much on your hands (potassium overdose symptoms). Read precautions and follow them.

Great video, I have always been curious about all these methods and their efficacy. I actually have all the ones that you tested in my storage and have used them all over the year. My experience does somewhat reflect your experiment results. Neem oil isn't that effective at all and it leaves a weird smell. A note of caution that dish soap might harm the plants. A better choice would be horticultural soap (it's available in concentrated form).

You always seem to post the most relevant videos for me. This season I’ve been experimenting with spinosad for the first time. I’ve always just used neem and I’ve never had great results. My partner does pest control and convinced me that I can use spinosad and pyrethrin without harming the beneficial insects as long as I apply it in the evening. I should have listened to him years ago because this stuff works and my garden is so much healthier now! I also do an occasional plant wash with dr bronners in my 2 gallon sprayer and I think that makes a big difference.

I really enjoyed this video. I live in central Florida so my climate is a bit different and I cant follow all your advice. BUT.....your pesticide and fertilizer videos are 100 percent the BEST on YT. Thank you from Daytona Beach, Fl.

Thank you, great information. Glad I watched this today and feel your test was very accurate and fair. So far I only used dish soap on aphids,but did you kill squash bugs with the dish soap? I always have too many squash bugs.