• Cochinilla Algodonosa (Planoccocus citri) / Cottony Mealybug (Planoccocus citri) [ESP/ENGL]

• Piojo Blanco (Pinnaspis aspidistraes) / White Louse (Pinnaspis aspidistraes) [ESP/ENGL]

• Insecticida Natural / Natural Insecticide [ESP/ENGL]

I return after two months, with the fourth post in a series related to certain pests that are devastating the green areas of my home. As I already indicated, since 2020 certain plagues arose, but in 2021 they became more pronounced, leading to the death of some plants and taking away the vitality of others, so that they hardly produce any fruit. This led me to create a natural insecticide, which I initially wanted to apply to the trillolit plant (Combretum indicum) and the lemon tree (Citrus limon) on the site that is plagued by white lice (Pinnaspis aspidistraes), but in the end, I decided to just apply it to the lemon tree, (the trillolit is very large). I share these three publications below:

• Cochinilla Algodonosa (Planoccocus citri) / Cottony Mealybug (Planoccocus citri) [ESP/ENGL]

• Piojo Blanco (Pinnaspis aspidistraes) / White Louse (Pinnaspis aspidistraes) [ESP/ENGL]

• Insecticida Natural / Natural Insecticide [ESP/ENGL]

To start applying the insecticide that I made based on isopropyl alcohol, tobacco, garlic and blue soap, I waited four weeks for the ingredients to macerate well, mixing them into a homogeneous solution, thus guaranteeing 100% effectiveness. I proceeded to take an old bottle of printer ink, and I selected this bottle for the type of mouth it has, in the form of a beak, which at the time I thought was the ideal way to apply this insecticide, because the lemon tree at that time was full of flowers, and I wanted to put the mixture in specific places, and without sprinkling, in such a way as to avoid frightening the bees and other pollinators; however, choosing this bottle shape was a mistake, as you will see later.

I proceeded to mix the insecticide at 50%, that is, a part of water and another equal part of the preparation, then I stirred to homogenize and applied to the trunk and branches, which were really covered with white lice. I did this on March 8, 2022, trying to cover all the diseased parts of the plant. You can see the photos below:

This application was made every 2 days, at sunset, in the hope that the fruits of the lemon tree would be saved and that its flowers would give more lemons. These photos are from March 12, 4 days later, that is, this was already the third dose of the insecticide. As you can see, at that time it had flowers, fruits and the white lice population had partially decreased.

Continue to apply the insecticide to 50% every other day; however, by this point I had done more research on the subject, and I read that adding a few drops of oil (vegetable or mineral), to this type of compound, favored a better fixation to the surfaces of the plants, prolonging their time of action; so I proceeded to add three drops of baby oil to each 100 ml bottle of natural insecticide, which was what I applied. The following photos are from March 17, 2022, by this time the reduction in the population of the white louse was more noticeable, as you can see in the following photos, the plant still had fruits and flowers. However, and to be honest, from the first application I saw that the bees and other pollinators were absent from the lemon tree, which is why at this point I tried to pollinate its flowers using a cotton swab.

Now, to March 31, 2022, I stopped applying the natural insecticide, and this happened because the plant began to dry out, it was dying, and I attributed it to an incorrect application of the insecticide. Do you remember that I commented at the beginning of the post that it had been a mistake to have chosen that dispensing bottle? Well, it turns out that although it is true the bottle made it possible to apply the insecticide to the trunk and thick branches of the lemon tree, (which by the way, it is a dwarf), it also had the disadvantage that a large part of the liquid drained towards its roots, and this dried up the little tree, since it had tobacco and alcohol; and it lost not only the flowers and the fruits but also withered in great part; It would have been more appropriate to use a small sprinkler that would disperse just the right amount of preparation without affecting the soil and roots. Another error that I consider I had in this treatment was the frequency of application, since it was very frequent, very high, every two days was very close, the ideal would have been every four or five days. Below you can see a small progression of how parts of its branches withered, although in April 2022 I did not take photos, because it made me very sad, I thought my lemon tree would die. Already with the arrival of the rains it has strengthened a little.

CONCLUSION: This insecticide is effective against white lice, although I could not prove it 100% because I interrupted the treatment, it did reduce the population of these insects during the first week of application. However, it is necessary to use a fine-jet sprinkler to place it in the diseased areas of the plant, and distance the application days to every four or five days. If the plant is in bloom, avoid using it, but if it is very infested and treatment is urgent, forgot the possibility that its flowers will be pollinated, unless it is done manually.

Here I end this post, which I did as an experiment of a natural alternative to control certain pests in plants and crops. Soon I will be publishing other biological insecticides. I hope this information is useful for everyone.

• Todas las fotos de este post son de mi autoría y fueron tomadas con mi teléfono Xiomi REDMI 8 A // These photos are my own, and were taken with a Xiomi REDMI 8 A phone

• Los divisores son cortesía de @eve66 quien comparte bellos diseños que embellecen el maquetado de nuestras publicaciones. // The dividers used are courtesy of @eve66 who shares beautiful designs that embellish the layout of our post.

• En caso de que se requiera utilizar el contenido o las imágenes de este post y de mis otras publicaciones, agradecería que se hiciera referencia a mi autoría (Fabiola Martínez) y se citara el enlace correspondiente. Gracias. // In case it is required to use the content or images of this post and of my other publications, I would appreciate if you could refer to my authorship (Fabiola Martínez) and cite the corresponding link. Thanks.

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