Hot pepper wax, info needed please

Garry88220 · 02-25-2011, 10:46 PM

I have read some comments here' and other sites I visit, about hot pepper wax, as an insect repellent and or killer. Has anyone used it? How successfully? What I have read it repells almost any insect and kills some in the larval stage, organic, and safe to use right up to picking. Last year our garden was plauged with squash borers, grasshoppers, and a number of worms. I would prefer not to use chemicals. Any help or advice would be very welcomed.

cow parsnip · 02-26-2011, 10:10 AM

you can make your own easily form fresh or dry hot peppers--the hotter varieties--i use the culls from cayenne, habenero, chiltepin, etc... just blend them up in water, recommend adding some garlic, let ferment awhile and strain. the wax aspect in the product is just a 'spreader'sticker'--makes it last longer. i prefer yucca based spreader stickers (Peaceful Valley). there are other reasons for the preference but Yucca makes a natural soap (from the saponins). Saponins are toxic but are rinsed and cooked off for human consumption from yucca, cassava, etc... Saponins protect these plants and others from insects. A lot of folks use dish soap but you have to be careful which and how much so as not to burn. Too much yucca can burn too. You could make your own yucca easily. Look for recipes to make yucca shampoo or you can buy some (Paul Mitchell line carries one called something like Awupi).

No as for your pests: i sort of doubt it will curb the grasshoppers, which are sort of the billy goats of the insect world--good luck with them--there is a bacteria that must be used early in the season that will kill the young ones but they move about readily so i never bothered to try that. It likely will not work well with squash borers either is my gut feel. the moth (fly) lays eggs on the stem and they hatch and bore in. Borers only have a few cycles and as for summer squash i prefer to plant several cycles of squash--the younger plants produce better anyway. Keep the plants covered with Remay or like so the moths can't get to the stems until the plants begin to produce--you can fight the borers manually and keep sems buried as they grow. As for worms-- i am supposing you mean ones crawling about on the leaves--DIPEL will take care of most of them and is easy to use--it is a bacteria not a chemical that is sprayed on the leaf they digest that in turn 'eats' the catepillar--it is pretty cheap and harmless to all but a specific genus of 'catepillar' which includes most of those pestering gardens--a pound pouch will last the season and it can be mixed in with other things such as your hot pepper spray.

02-25-2011, 10:46 PM	#1
Garry88220 Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Carlsbad, New Mexico Posts: 74	Hot pepper wax, info needed please I have read some comments here' and other sites I visit, about hot pepper wax, as an insect repellent and or killer. Has anyone used it? How successfully? What I have read it repells almost any insect and kills some in the larval stage, organic, and safe to use right up to picking. Last year our garden was plauged with squash borers, grasshoppers, and a number of worms. I would prefer not to use chemicals. Any help or advice would be very welcomed.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

02-26-2011, 10:10 AM	#2
cow parsnip Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: maryland Posts: 99	you can make your own easily form fresh or dry hot peppers--the hotter varieties--i use the culls from cayenne, habenero, chiltepin, etc... just blend them up in water, recommend adding some garlic, let ferment awhile and strain. the wax aspect in the product is just a 'spreader'sticker'--makes it last longer. i prefer yucca based spreader stickers (Peaceful Valley). there are other reasons for the preference but Yucca makes a natural soap (from the saponins). Saponins are toxic but are rinsed and cooked off for human consumption from yucca, cassava, etc... Saponins protect these plants and others from insects. A lot of folks use dish soap but you have to be careful which and how much so as not to burn. Too much yucca can burn too. You could make your own yucca easily. Look for recipes to make yucca shampoo or you can buy some (Paul Mitchell line carries one called something like Awupi). No as for your pests: i sort of doubt it will curb the grasshoppers, which are sort of the billy goats of the insect world--good luck with them--there is a bacteria that must be used early in the season that will kill the young ones but they move about readily so i never bothered to try that. It likely will not work well with squash borers either is my gut feel. the moth (fly) lays eggs on the stem and they hatch and bore in. Borers only have a few cycles and as for summer squash i prefer to plant several cycles of squash--the younger plants produce better anyway. Keep the plants covered with Remay or like so the moths can't get to the stems until the plants begin to produce--you can fight the borers manually and keep sems buried as they grow. As for worms-- i am supposing you mean ones crawling about on the leaves--DIPEL will take care of most of them and is easy to use--it is a bacteria not a chemical that is sprayed on the leaf they digest that in turn 'eats' the catepillar--it is pretty cheap and harmless to all but a specific genus of 'catepillar' which includes most of those pestering gardens--a pound pouch will last the season and it can be mixed in with other things such as your hot pepper spray.