The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: happy larry on July 13, 2011, 09:40:44 pm
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Have any members used these in a greenhouse/tunnel.after i got a major greenfly infestation in the p,tunnel last year and did a bit of asking about and was told of these nicotine fibres.I managed to source some earlier this year,i now have a plague of black fly in the tunnel not causing much problem but get covered in them every time i go to water etc,as my plants are almost roof height i dont want to risk nuking everything,anyone help please.
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Hi HL. I haven't heard of nicotine fibres. How do you use them? Are they just laid around, or burnt, or made into a spray? I think they used to use nicotine smoke to kill off insects in glasshouses before Health and Safety came along but you would imagine that it would kill off the goodies as well as the baddies - and not be good for you either.
Are the blackfly the kind you find on broad beans? If they are you just pick off the tips of the plants with the flies on and destroy. Or are they perhaps pollen beetles (which I think don't cause probs)? Or are they some other kind of fly? They could be coming in if it is very humid in there, so make sure you have enough through-draft. Sounds wonderful though if the plants are getting up to the roof :yum: :)
For pest plagues I use liquid soap spray which works fine if you get it onto all the insects you want to kill and it's not harmful to anything it doesn't touch, or to plants. I haven't had to use it for a while though as I seem to have got a good balance of goodies and baddies ie predators and prey :o
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Hi fleecewife,thanks for your reply,thought i was in coventry or cloud cukoo land lol.You burn the fibres and the toxic smoke kills the bugs,unfortunateley i have no visible good bugs just these black things(not like blackfly on broad beans) that are mostly on top of the compost,however i have noticed leaves on pepper plants getting eaten,and showing signs of not being happy. As far as i know nicotine fibres are still available and not yet banned,i spoke to the person i got them from today and double checked if it was safe to use in an occupied (plants) poly tunnel YES was the answer seller uses them in her greenhouse,so i will seal the netted doors with polythene and nuke the little buggers as im looking for a quick fix, not spraying like i did last year.Regarding the draught,i have an oscilating fan running at full speed for 12 hours per day so its not humid,hot yes most days it reaches 30+.After i have done the nuking i will post the results,and if anyone wants to try them they can pm me for the supplier.