Posted by Tom Broome on 6/29/2009, 10:08 pm, in reply to "Re: Asian Scale"
64.12.117.67
:
: It would be nice it someone out
: there could manufacture and market
: an 'natural' insecticide using
: highly concentrated coffee
: alkaloids. (or even synthetic
: alkyls). It would make treatment of
: scale a little more scientific, and
: easier. Although, there's nothing
: too hard about stopping by
: starbucks.
:
There are people out there making pure, synthetic caffeine, which would probably work, but I don't know anything about finding it to try. Personally, I like the organic natural way to treat the plants. The coffee also has an organic nitrogen rating of about 4 to 5 and also has a bit of Manganese, so using the coffee is good for more than just killing insects. Just think, if people used the used coffee grounds from Starbucks to make their spray there would be a lot less insecticides being used. There are 6 Satrbucks in Lakeland, where I live, but the one closest to me is just an average store with probably a bit less traffic than some, and this one gives out 12 bags each day. If you multiply how many gallons of spray that can make and then multiply that times the stores they have (keep in mind some or much more busy than this one), you could brew 3.8 million gallons of spray each and every day with what they give away, or dump. Think about how much insecticide wouldn;t need to be used and what that would be for the environment! The coffee is good for any plant and it not only kills all scales, but mealy bugs, aphids, whiteflies, and probably all kinds of other pests. My new experiments are showing that they also can repell higher form insects and I have been able to keep ants away from plants, and my house, and I have kept grasshoppers from eating my Scarlet Fever gingers I sell. One application of mulch has kept my gingers, hole free for 3 months.
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