The Bug Battle

[Sylvia Bernstein]

How are people tackling the bugs that find our systems?  I've been using a combination of beneficial insects (mainly ladybugs) and spraying with insecticidal soap when I have to...but I worry about the effect that using too much of that might have on the fish.  If a plant is pretty small (lettuces, greens, beans, peppers) and is pretty bug infested I'll take it out of the media and let it soak in the fish tank for about 15 minutes. the bugs drown, and the fish seem to love them.

I know some people use neem oil with success.  What are the downsides?  What else do you guys use?

Also, my most buggy plants are salad greens and peppers.  They've stayed totally off my herbs, broccoli, and tomatoes.  What have other's experience been with this?  Any hypothesis as to why?  Travis thinks it has something to do with nitrogen levels...

[Johann]

Years ago I used this mix and it worked very good in a regular garden. I do not know what it would do in aquaponics.

I-2 handful of hot peppers

1 whole onion

1 whole garlic

1 handful of tomato leafs

1-2 slices of lemon

Put everything in a blender and grate it down very small, add water if needed.

Put the mix in a bowel and add 1 gallon of water stir it a little bit and let it sit for 24-48 hrs.

Strain the mix but keep your hand out of it, your hands will get red and will burn.

Add a few drops of lemon scented liquid soap.

Now take 1 cup of this mix and add 1.5 gallon of water, stir it and put it in a sprayer. 

Warning: do not use this mix if it is not watered down first, it may kill your plants.

The undiluted mix will kill carpenter bees that looks like bumble bees on contact(bees being wet with the mix) in about 10 seconds.

Adding mint could be a benefit, since it could repel insects.

Mint is a natural mosquito repellant, which I used before by rubbing the mint leaf in my hand first and then I will rub the rest of my body ...arms...legs...etc. It works very well in repelling mosquitoes.

 

Ants

Since we live in 30 acr wooded area around us and with a small creek in the middle in the city, we have a major ant and mosquito problem.

Last year we had a ant problem so bad we could not walk outside without the ants being all over you.

So I experiment it with it and I started feeding them my mix and this year we only have a view more left.

My ant feeding mix.

3-4 tsp 20 mule borax ( walmart)

6-7 tsp jam, jelly ( I used strawberry, but I guess any flavor will do)

You should have a total of 10 parts.

Mix it good and let it set for 15 minutes and then mix it again.

Put the mix in coke bottle caps and set it in the ant trail.

If you see a lot of dead ants around the bottle cap, you have to much borax in it.

The goal is for the ants to carry the bait into their nest.

If you see some more ants repeat it.

It took about 1 week before most of them disappeared from one trail.

With the big ants I had to repeat it 3 times, I don't know if they where from different nest's or the same.

The ants sure loved it.

You can increase the borax ratio, but if you use to much borax either the ants will refuse the bait or the ants die before they get to the nest.

I think mixing boric acid from walgreens and maybe seven dust with it, would be a good or better way also, since ants/bugs can not get immune to boric acid.

This year I will try boric acid and jam/jelly with a ratio 3 / 7 and I will see what happen. I got 1 nest left, I can try it on.

 

Mosquitoes

This year, I will harvest mosquito larva and this should do it.

I will cut the bottom of 2 liter soda bottle open and leave the bottle caps on.

Turn the bottle up-side-down and fill it with fish water and place it on stakes outside in different locations.

After I have larva in it, I will feed it to the fish and I will repeat it through-out the year.

This should limit the mosquito population while feeding my fish.

 

[Converse]

 Greetings Johann,

  I will admit I have not tried your recipe above that contains the garlic and onion...but from the chemical make up of the onions and garlic alone, it certainly looks as if it would work.  Sounds like you've had success with it.  I would caution the use of this in aquaponic systems.  The reason for the caution is that garlic and onion  juice both have proven antimicrobial effects.  As aquaponic gardeners, we are trying to grow these microbes. I realize the recipe would be alpplied to plant foliage, however there will be spray or drips landing in the media or pool.  The use of the above recipe could easily put a system at a disadvantaged or recovery stage, and could be detrimental to the plants in the long run if they are already stressed out from insect  invasion...then the microbial population in the 'soup' goes away or diminishes and they miss out on the nutrients too.

 

     Thank you for these recipes.  It is always nice to have some alternatives in the 'recipe file'.

 

- Converse

 

[Johann]

I did not know that onions and garlic has that affect on microbes, I was worried more about the hot peppers that could maybe attack the gills of the fish in an aquaponic system.

In my regular garden I put it in a sprayer or spray bottle and mist the leafs. No need to soak the leafs until they are so wet that they are tripping. So far I never seen any reaction using this mix from the plant.

Like I said I had very good results in a regular garden, but I will be using it in aquaponics whenever I get my system running and if there is any need for it.

As you may see, I will always try the natural approach first. I avoid using any artificial  chemicals at all cost if I can for my garden and I hope in the future for the aquaponic system that I want to get going, I can do the same.  

Thank you for the caution.

Converse said:

 Greetings Johann,

  I will admit I have not tried your recipe above that contains the garlic and onion...but from the chemical make up of the onions and garlic alone, it certainly looks as if it would work.  Sounds like you've had success with it.  I would caution the use of this in aquaponic systems.  The reason for the caution is that garlic and onion  juice both have proven antimicrobial effects.  As aquaponic gardeners, we are trying to grow these microbes. I realize the recipe would be alpplied to plant foliage, however there will be spray or drips landing in the media or pool.  The use of the above recipe could easily put a system at a disadvantaged or recovery stage, and could be detrimental to the plants in the long run if they are already stressed out from insect  invasion...then the microbial population in the 'soup' goes away or diminishes and they miss out on the nutrients too.

 

     Thank you for these recipes.  It is always nice to have some alternatives in the 'recipe file'.

 

- Converse

 

[Johann]

Here maybe an idea for folks doing the raft system.

They could make this mix and put it in a plastic toad. Have another plastic toad ready with clear clean water.

Take the raft out of the system and turn it up-side-down and dip it into the plastic toad with the mix for a minute, then you dip it into the plastic toad with the clean water for a few seconds.And then you set it back in your system.

Make sure while you are doing this that the roots do not touch the mix.

I do not have any experience with raft systems, but what I read and what I seen watching videos the root systems may be big enough to hold the plant into the raft while it is turned up-side-down, this should be possible.
Johann said:

I did not know that onions and garlic has that affect on microbes, I was worried more about the hot peppers that could maybe attack the gills of the fish in an aquaponic system.

In my regular garden I put it in a sprayer or spray bottle and mist the leafs. No need to soak the leafs until they are so wet that they are tripping. So far I never seen any reaction using this mix from the plant.

Like I said I had very good results in a regular garden, but I will be using it in aquaponics whenever I get my system running and if there is any need for it.

As you may see, I will always try the natural approach first. I avoid using any artificial  chemicals at all cost if I can for my garden and I hope in the future for the aquaponic system that I want to get going, I can do the same.  

Thank you for the caution.

Converse said:

 Greetings Johann,

  I will admit I have not tried your recipe above that contains the garlic and onion...but from the chemical make up of the onions and garlic alone, it certainly looks as if it would work.  Sounds like you've had success with it.  I would caution the use of this in aquaponic systems.  The reason for the caution is that garlic and onion  juice both have proven antimicrobial effects.  As aquaponic gardeners, we are trying to grow these microbes. I realize the recipe would be alpplied to plant foliage, however there will be spray or drips landing in the media or pool.  The use of the above recipe could easily put a system at a disadvantaged or recovery stage, and could be detrimental to the plants in the long run if they are already stressed out from insect  invasion...then the microbial population in the 'soup' goes away or diminishes and they miss out on the nutrients too.

 

     Thank you for these recipes.  It is always nice to have some alternatives in the 'recipe file'.

 

- Converse

 

[TCLynx]

Just to remind everyone that you must be very careful with soap and oil around Aquaponics and you want to make sure you don't get enough into the water that it could interfere with the fish breathing through their gills or the bacteria breathing through osmosis.

 

Make sure whatever you use, you don't cause suds or slicks in your system water.

 

Most people who have to use possibly fish dangerous treatments are advised to move the plants out of the system for treatment and make sure the treatment if dangerous to fish won't be rinsed off by rain into the system.

[Windy Elliott]

I've got an aphid problem now. I got the soap and the sticky tape and this morning I swished some plants. I'm not entirely sure how the sticky tape is supposed to catch the aphids though. Do they fly? The directions said to hang them, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't be laying them flat on the bed media.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Hi Windy.  By sticky tape do you mean the yellow or blue sticky traps?  Aphids do have a flying stage in their lifetime, and The sticky are mostly useful as an indicator of whether or not you have the bugs, vs a very effective control method.  The reason why there is a grid is to help you count how many you "catch" in any square inch so you can monitor if populations are increasing or decreasing...but sounds like you already know that just from looking under the leaves!  I recommend soaking the infested plants in your fish tank for at least 1/2 an hour, if they are small enough and not appealing to your fish (i.e. not lettuce around tilapia!) to drown the bugs, then spray weekly with the diluted insecticidal soap...being careful to get as little as possible in the fish tank and on the media.  if you have already sprayed the plants then rinse them before putting them in the fish tank.  There are lots of other great suggestion in this thread that others have used with success that you might want to try as well.

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Sylvia,

Thanks for the tip..........so that's the reason for the grid! Well as you live, you AP learn!

 

[Windy Elliott]

Hi Sylvia,

 

Yes, the yellow ones you sell on your site. I can't really soak the leaves because I already sprayed them with the soap insecticide. I'm just going to hold off on doing anything else for now. I guess I just don't have as green a thumb as I had hoped. I am enjoying my koi though. I just wish I could promise them a larger tank when they get too big. Has anyone invented a fish bridge yet?

[Windy Elliott]

Oh. and I've been using the insecticide directly from the bottle. Am I supposed to be mixing it with water?

 

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Yep...there are instructions on the side of the bottle that you should follow.

[Windy Elliott]

I bought the safer insecticide soap from your site and all the directions say is to shake it before using it. As far as I know there were no other directions provided.