Neem Oil For Bug Control

Can I use neem oil on my cabbage plants to control bugs?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Fred. We got an email fromJanis. You can always email Fred your
question. It's fredat plant talk radiodot com. And Janis says, I
finished harvesting my cabbage in late September, but most of the summer I was
dealing with cabbage aphids, Okay,and someone said that I should spray them
with nime oil. Now do youthink that name oil is a good solution

(00:22):
and is that safe? Well,first of all safe, No pesticide is
safe unless you read the directions.Yeah, and then even then there's always
some little bit of tolerance, andthere's always somebody that is allergic to something
that others aren't, and so onand so forth. However, she's been
guided right. The name oil isa very expensive extraction, but at the

(00:45):
same time it works very very well. It works on well simple things like
the aphids, and then on intoother things, and most especially the aphids
because they're unarmored, they don't havea shell, so to speak. She's
guided right. Now back to businessof reading the directions. I always hesitate,
and you almost hate to talk aboutchemicals unless I have the label in

(01:07):
front of me, because there thereare exceptions to almost all things. However,
Neime was the right thing to beguided do if she reads and then
especially mixes it at the recommended rates, and if she doesn't have other protection
or or can't be careful enough,wear rubber gloves when you're mixing it so

(01:29):
that you don't get the raw materialon your hands and so on, because
there is there is a toxicity factdirection say that can be misunderstood, and
it has to do with numbers,et cetera. Some things like meme are
very very very one end of theof the number system. The others are

(01:53):
way up there to where if adrop was on the back of your hand
where the skin is pretty thin,you're gone, wow. So yes,
Mark, she was guided right.Then it comes down to timing. And
aphids have live birth, so there'sno egg laying stage. And I would

(02:13):
recommend then that she plan on theinitial applications as she sees the very first
David and maybe even knowing when theyshowed up last year or whatever. She
should start spraying then and spray everyfive to ten days for three times.
That will start the process of control. Then it's a matter of watching carefully

(02:35):
and following up if necessary. AndI don't know what to say about the
following up and then the label willalso tell you probably how often to spray.
But yeah, she's been hit inthe right direction, and I'm glad,
she asked, because when you're dealingwith an edible product, you just
absolutely or mandate be careful. Souse the name, use it right,
and enjoy the product.