When
it comes to repelling plant-eating garden pests I
prefer to apply organic products rather than chemicals and
have been using diatomaceous earth in the soil but found I needed
something else for the leaf nibblers. So when the
girls at my garden club were talking about a hot pepper wax
spray that they used to repel animals and insects;
deer, groundhogs, squirrels,
aphids, spider mites, leafhoppers, and other garden insects that ate
plants I took
notes.
The
organic pepper spray sounded great, but I wondered if the formula
would be too strong for some of my herb plants since the application
was to spray the entire plant including the soil in the garden. Sure
enough, I was told that some plants are sensitive to pepper spray
and that I should not treat the herbs peppermint, basil, lemon balm, or parsley. I am certain there are a few plants in my garden that
will be sensitive to this potent pepper spray so I plan to test the
plant by spraying a small amount on a leaf to see what happens,
before spraying the entire garden bed.
Know
that hot pepper wax should be spayed at dusk, this will allow the wax to
harden due to the cooler air. Wax would not coat the leaves if
sprayed on a sunny day. Make sure that you spray the entire plant,
that includes the front and backside of the leaves, the stem, bud, and
flower, The pepper spray will protect all plants that are treated in
the garden from pests, however, you must watch for new growth.
Anything new will be unprotected.
On
average the pepper spray lasts about two weeks. Know that when you
harvest your edible plants you must wash them with warm water to
remove the hot pepper wax. I had a deer take a bite of my lily
leaves, the pepper wax did not stop the deer, BUT the deer had a
coughing fit, then drank from my pond before leaving my yard. So you
bet the hot pepper wax spray works.
You can buy
hot pepper wax spray for animal and insect repellent at ebay.com (one-gallon concentrate)
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