Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

mammals.
    Safety: Wear a mask and gloves, cover exposed skin and hair.
Diatomaceous Earth (DE)
    Ingredients: Naturally occurring DE includes fossilized-silica-shell, remains of the tiny one-celled or colonial creatures called diatoms. It also contains 14 trace minerals in a chelated (available) form.
    Controls: Although not registered as a pesticide or fungicide, DE abrades the waxy coating on pest shells and skin, including aphids and slugs, causing body fluids to leak out. Once ingested, the razor-sharp particles in DE rip tiny holes in the pest’s guts, causing death.

    Caution: Do not use swimming pool diatomaceous earth. Chemically treated and heated, it contains crystalline silica that is very hazardous if inhaled. The body is unable to dissolve the crystalline form of silica that causes chronic irritation.
    Mixing: No mixing required when used as a dust. Mixing required when used as spray. Apply as a powder or encircle slug-damaged plants and use as a barrier.
    Application: Apply this spray to infestations caused by pest insects.
    Persistence: Stays on foliage for a few days or until washed off.
    Forms: Powder.
    Toxicity: Earthworms, animals, humans, and birds can digest diatomaceous earth with no ill-effects. Avoid contact with skin and eyes.
    Safety: Wear a protective mask and goggles when handling this fine powder to guard against respiratory and eye irritations.
Homemade Pest and Disease Sprays
    Ingredients: A strong, hot taste, smelly odor, and a desiccating powder or liquid are the main ingredients in home-brewed pesticide and fungicide potions. See below.
    Controls: Homemade sprays discourage and control pests includingaphids, thrips, spider mites, scale, and many others.
    Caution: Be careful when testing a new spray. Apply it to a single plant and wait for a few days to learn the outcome before applying to all plants.
    Mixing: Make spray concentrates by mixing repellent substances with a little water in a blender. Strain the resulting slurry concentrate through a nylon stocking or fine cheesecloth before being diluted with water for application.
    Application: Spray foliage until it drips from both sides of leaves.
    Persistence: A few days.
    Forms: Liquid.
    Toxicity: Usually not toxic to humans in dosages lethal to pests.
    Safety: Wear a mask and gloves, and cover skin and hair. Avoid contact with eyes, nose, lips, and ears.
Neem
    Ingredients: Relatively new in the USA, neem has been used for medicine and pest control for more than four centuries in India and Southeast Asia. Extracted from the Indian neem tree, Azadirachta indica, or the chinaberry tree, Melia azedarach, neem is an antifeedant and disrupts insect life cycles. The trees are known as the village pharmacy because they supply cures for humans and animals as well as safely control countless pests and fungi. Neem powder is made from leaves. The active ingredient, azadirachtin, confuses growth hormones and pests never mature into adults to produce more young. It is most effective against young insects and is available in various concentrations. It also contains N-P-K and trace elements.

Homemade sprays can be made by blending water, lemon, vegetable oil, and garlic.
    Controls: Most effective against caterpillars and other immature insects including larvae of white-flies, fungus gnats, mealybugs, and leafminers.
    Caution: Neem is not as effective against spider mites as neem oil.
    Mixing: Often mixed with vegetable (canola) oil. Mix just before using in water with a pH below 7 and use a spreader-sticker. Agitate constantly while using to keep emulsified, throw out excess.
    Application: Use as a soil-drench or add to the nutrient solution. This allows neem to enter into the plant’s tissue and become systemic. Used as a spray, neem becomes a contact spray and anantifeedant when eaten by pests. Performs best in rooms with 60 percent plus humidity.
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Recipes and Controls Chart
Ingredients:
    Alcohol: Use isopropyl (rubbing). Add to sprays to dry out pests.
    Bleach: Use a 5 percent solution as a general disinfectant.
    Cinnamon: Dilute cinnamon oil with water. Use just a few drops per pint as pesticide.
    Citrus: Citrus oils make great ingredients that kill insects dead.
    Garlic: Use a garlic press to squeeze garlic juice into mix. Use liberal amounts.
    Horseradish: Stinky stuff! Add as you would garlic. Best to use fresh root.
    Hot pepper: Dilute Tabasco® or any store-bought concentrate in water.
    Hydrated lime: Saturate in water to form a