How to make a neem oil Insecticide

We always suggest taking an Organic approach to your garden before resorting to chemicals. Before buying a chemical insecticide, try making one with Organic and natural ingredients. In this video, we showed you how to make a neem oil insecticide with organic and natural ingredients. ​

Know this first:

When dealing with natural and organic insecticides there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Certain ingredients will only deter or kill certain bugs. Neem oil is used to control over 200 varieties of phytoph-agous insects, meaning the types of bugs that eat your plants.

Neem Oil Controls Bugs like: 

Aphids, leafhoppers, psyllids, whiteflies, scale insects, planthoppers, thrips larvae, mealy bugs, cabbage worms, mites, fungus, gnats, mushroom flies, locusts, Japanese beetle, Mediterranean fruit fly, Oriental fruit fly, Face fly, Horn fly, Housefly, Flea, Head lice, Spotted cucumber beetle, Mexican bean beetle, Colorado potato beetle, Flea beetle, Khapra beetle, Confused flour beetle, Japanese beetle, Red flour beetle, American cockroach, Bean aphid, Rice gall, midge, Diamondback moth, Webbing clothes moth, Gypsy moth, Corn earworm, Pink bollworm, Fall armyworm,Tobacco budworm, Tomato Hornworm, Cabbage looper, Leafminer, Serpentine leafminer, Brown planthopper, Green leafhopper, Migratory locust, House cricket, Milkweed bug, Fire ant, Boll weevil, Cowpea weevil, Rice weevil, Grasshopper, Cricket

 

Orthoptera insects, such as grasshoppers, crickets and locusts refuse to eat the neem oil treated plants for up to several weeks.  Phloem feeders, such as aphids are not affected by the neem oil unless it is sprayed directly on the insect. Neem is effective on thrips larvae whereas adult thrips are less sensitive to the effects. 

 

Benefits of making it yourself:

So before we get started, why are we making this rather than buying it? Well here’s a little secret.  If you make it yourself, you can make it stronger than they’re allowed to sell in the stores. The ratio of neem oil is strictly regulated for manufacturers of these types of products.  In fact, in some areas neem oil products are banned from being sold. Knowing this doesn’t mean we’re going to add ridiculous amounts to our concoction but we can add a splash more to make it more concentrated. A very little goes a long way. More information in the recipe below.

Ingredients:

So this recipe is super simple, all you need is...  Organic Neem Oil, water and an emulsifier.  But what is an emulsifier? Since the oil and water won’t mix together on their own, the emulsifier makes this possible. An emulsifier can be nothing more than liquid soap. Some people use silica (potassium silicate) as an emusifier because it’s more natural and has slight fertilizing properties in it. Silica is known to help the plant stand against stress and drought situations while strengthening the cell walls, leading to larger stocks and better plants. Silica also makes the plant less susceptible to fungal diseases like powdery mildew while warding away leaf-sucking insects. We tried to use silica for our recipe but it made our concoction chunky and we didn't want to clog up our sprayer. 

Product links:

The most important part of this is to get a good quality neem oil because it’ll have a high amount of Azadirachtin which is the active compound. So look for 100% pure, which might also be called “crude” or “raw”. Also get one that’s cold pressed because Azadirachtin gets destroyed by heat. 

Recipe:

The solution we’re making is 1 1/2 tsp per quart. If you wanna experiment with a stronger solution that’s fine but I wouldn’t use more than a 1/2 tsp per quart.

Add the neem oil to the water. Then add 2 tsp of emulsifier. Shake well. 

How to Use it:

Our solution is now ready to use but how do we apply it? Spray it generously on all leaf surfaces, including the undersides. Apply it in the early morning or late afternoon to prevent leaf burning. You should never apply it in direct sunlight. Do this once every 2 to 4 weeks. 

How it works:

So what results can you expect after using this? Unfortunately you probably won’t see immediate results. The way Neem Oil works is it acts as a feeding and growth disruptor, preventing the bugs from breeding. So don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away because it’s working on preventing a future generation of bugs. Neem oil has the following effects on insects: Disrupting or inhibiting the development of eggs, larvae, or pupae; blocking the molting of larvae or nymphs; disrupting mating and sexual communication; repelling larvae and adults; deterring females from laying eggs; sterilizing adults; Poisoning larvae and adults; deterring feeding; blocking the ability to "swallow" (that is, reducing the motility of the gut); sending metamorphosis awry at various stages.

Cautionary tips: 

Always be extra-cautious with DIY sprays. Different plants may react negatively to your solution depending on the ingredients.

So before applying this to your entire garden, spray it on a small portion of a single plant.  If everything looks good after 24 hours then you’re clear to spray the whole plant.

You can use this spray regularly as a preventative measure, especially if your garden has a history of bugs during a certain time of year. 

That’s it! Hope this helps.​​​