Using Soap to Kill Bees: A Controversial but Effective Method

I used a pesticide as directed to get rid of borers in my fruit trees, but now I’ve learned that I’m also killing bees.

A: All pesticides are lethal to bees. Even soap and water kill them. Bees that get into home walls, block walls, or irrigation boxes can be killed with soap and water.

Never spray a plant that is flowering with anything. That’s a death knell to bees and their colonies.

The major concern is a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, chemically related to nicotine. They are very toxic to invertebrates, like insects.

An insecticide called imidicloprid, a neonicotinoid, is most often used to kill fruit and vegetable borers and tree borers. There are worries that this insecticide and others in the same class could kill honeybee colonies, so they are not allowed to be used in some countries. It is not proven to cause colony collapse disorder but is suspected to contribute to it.

Personally, I would not use a neonicotinoid insecticide on plants that flower continuously. It should only be used on plants that flower once, for a short time, after the flowers have died. This makes it less likely that this insecticide will be brought back to the hive and cause colony collapse disorder. It is more of a problem when this insecticide is legally used on continuously flowering plants like tomato.

Q: I have a Honey Crisp apple tree that is 8 years old. I am at a 6,000-foot elevation in Central Nevada. In previous years, our neighbors enjoyed the fruit. This year the fruit got soft and mushy ahead of schedule before I was ready to harvest it. What caused that?.

A: Thank you for letting me know that you are at 6,000 feet in the Great Basin Desert in Central Nevada. I’m not sure how well a Honey Crisp apple does at our lower elevations in the Mojave Desert. Your climate is similar to Reno and not too far off from the climate of St. Paul, Minnesota, so it should produce good fruit there. If you live somewhere hot and want to plant a Honey Crisp apple tree, keep in mind that it might not do as well.

Like wine grapes, every fruit has its own unique terroir, which means that the plant makes better tasting fruit in some climates than others. It was told that it probably wouldn’t grow well in the hot desert, but I have never tried to grow it in the lower elevations of the Mojave Desert. The chilling requirement for Honey Crisp is predicted to be 800 to 1,000 hours.

The University of Minnesota crossed the Macoun apple with the Honeygold apple to make the Honey Crisp apple. It came out in 1991. This hybrid turned out to be a hit in cool and cold climate backyards for the fresh market. It is now the fifth-most- popular apple after Gala, Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Fuji.

Fresh fruit is harmed by the dried fruit beetle, which makes ripening fruit soft before it’s time to be picked. Dried fruit beetles really like figs, and they make the fruit go bad by carrying yeast on their bodies and spreading it to the fruit after they eat it. This attack and yeast infection cause the fruit to taste vinegary and mushy.

This problem is easy to fix: pick up fruit that has fallen to the ground and never leave damaged fruit on the tree. The dried fruit beetle prefers fresh fruit or freshly fallen fruit and breeds there. These offspring build in numbers and attack fresh fruit in larger numbers. Soon you have a rotten fermenting mess on your hands year after year.

In my experience, simply composting fresh fruit fallen on the ground doesn’t always work. The collected fruit should be put in a container with a lid so the adult fliers can’t escape.

When I have a big orchard with lots of fruit trees, I put the fruit in a 55-gallon plastic drum with a lid and let it rot. When it’s soft and rotten, I compost it.

Q: What are these white creepy crawly bugs on my hibiscus plant? I think they are hurting it. If so, how do I get rid of them?.

Mealybugs flourish in tropical countries during rainy periods and high humidity. These bugs are often seen on both tropical and temperate hibiscus plants when it rains or when the humidity is above 50%. Because they feed on sap, like aphids and whiteflies, they hurt plants and spread disease in humid areas if they are not controlled.

They can be a regular problem for people who grow plants in greenhouses or inside, where the humidity is usually higher. They are usually brought in on dirty plants, and these plants serve as insect spreaders to other plants. So being vigilant is an important control measure.

Control is simple but can be tedious for the nonpesticide user. Mealybugs like to hang out in groups or colonies, so treating just a few plants is often better than treating all of them. A cotton swab soaked in alcohol works well, and oils used as pesticides and insecticidal soaps used every few days also help get rid of them. You can also use any insecticide spray that says it kills mealybugs, and it will work for longer.

What happened to my 20-year-old Santa Rosa plum tree? It got eaten by borer and is almost dead. About a year and a half ago a sucker grew from the base of this plum. In the last two months, a small branch grew and fruit that looks like peaches instead of plums came from it. Should we keep it? Will they be good to eat?.

A: The sucker grew from its base, the grafted rootstock of that tree. Peach trees are sometimes used for grafting to Santa Rosa plum. There are three peach rootstocks used for grafting onto plums: Nemaguard, Lovell and Citation. The other two (Mariana and Myrobolan) are plum rootstocks and the fruit produced would be plums.

All three of these peach rootstocks produce lousy tasting peaches, but they are a peach. Get rid of the tree. The top (scion) died and left the rootstock to sucker. The rootstock will produce peaches because it was a peach.

Plant another Santa Rosa plum tree if you liked the first one. You can use the same hole since borers killed the first tree. If your Santa Rosa plum died of root or collar rot, I would tell you not to plant it in the same hole but a little farther away.

If the rootstock was Myrobolan plum, keep the tree growing if you like the taste of the small, tart fruit. You can buy something similar called a cherry plum (Sprite or Delight, aka Prunus cerasifera). Cherry plums are very good for flavoring sorbet, jams and jellies. Myrobolan plum is high in sugar but very tart, because of its high acidity, but very flavorful.

That was six years ago when I moved into my new house. My landscaper put in 10 bottle trees and a water feature with a waterfall. I had him put in a soft water line so the rocks wouldn’t turn white when the water feature is filled. He inadvertently connected my backyard sprinkler system to the soft water. I have been watering with soft water for five years and didn’t realize it until now. My bottle trees are dropping leaves and have dead branches. What about all that salt in the soil? How do I get rid of it?.

A: The usual salt used in water softeners is table salt. Sodium and chlorides, which are found in table salt, are both harmful to plants. However, they are easy to remove from the soil with better water that has fewer salts. Irrigation with tap water, not softened water, is all that is needed. I think that after two or three months of regular watering, the extra salt will be lowered to a safe level.

A water softener will often send softened water to all of the hose bibs that come from the house when it is set up. Check and make sure. Water used for irrigating plants coming from these hose bibs frequently has softened water coming from it.

Install a hose bib for watering plants from the irrigation main line or submain. A more plant-friendly salt to use would be potassium salts made for water softeners. They cost more but are less damaging to plants.

I hope you have a big landscape. Bottle trees grow to about 50 or 60 feet in height with an equal spread. That’s a lot of bottle trees. They should be planted 40 to 50 feet away from a two-story house and no more than 30 feet apart.

Bob Morris is a horticulture expert and professor emeritus of UNLV. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture. blogspot. com. Send questions to Extremehort@aol. com.

How To Kill Wasps With Dish Soap

FAQ

Why does Dawn dish soap kill bees?

Do vinegar and soap kill bees?

How fast does soapy water kill wasps?

Will soap spray harm bees?

Does soap kill bees?

Also, be sure no neighbors or pedestrians are nearby. Soap can kill bees and other insects because it is a surfactant—a substance that essentially makes water wetter. If you take a leaf and spray it with plain water, the water forms little round droplets. If you spray the same leaf with soapy water, the water flattens out into a thin layer.

Can one wash a bee sting site with water and hand soap?

Yes, washing a bee sting site with water and hand soap is a recommended first aid measure. When a bee stings, it leaves behind a venomous substance that can cause pain, swelling, and irritation. Washing the area with water and hand soap helps to remove any venom residue, dirt, or bacteria from the skin, reducing the risk of infection and minimizing the sting’s effects. After washing the area, you can apply a cold compress to reduce swelling and alleviate pain. If there is any sign of an allergic reaction, such as difficulty breathing, hives, or swelling of the face and throat, seek immediate medical attention.

Does soapy water kill bees?

They won’t be able to pull air in from their spiracles. If you don’t want to use soapy water to kill bees, there are many other natural remedies. These can both be used to kill or simply repel the bees. The two most popular are vinegar and mothballs. Read more about how to use the two when getting rid of bees.

Can you use soap as a bee repellent?

Whatever minimal coating is left behind can be easily wiped-off or comes off naturally over time with a little water. Homemade bee repellent doesn’t have the same harshness as commercial chemical since almost all household soaps are intended for safe household use, so consider using soap as an alternative to insecticide by following these steps.

How does soap work on bees?

Soap works on bees for two reasons: Soap allows water to penetrate the exoskeleton of bees. Soap essentially drowns bees from the inside. Soap is a surfactant. It makes water flow more freely and allows it to enter the bees’ bodies. A surfactant is defined as follows:

Does bee spray kill bees?

Bee spray is an effective way to kill bees. These are sprays designed to kill bees. Bee sprays are considered contact products, meaning you have to spray them directly on the bees. A contact spray will hit the bees directly and the effect will happen quickly, usually within 15 minutes or less.