Experiments with Dettol

[T0M]

Been battling mites for most of this year. Another member here suggested avid and forbid, it's not cheap though 50quid for 5ml of one and 10ml of the other, enough for 20L of mixed spray. I mixed both together in a sprayer two applications 3 days apart and I've not seen anything since. 

[highgrower]

A quick followup on the 40ml plant

 

 

The leaves look crispy and brittle but are actually quite soft and bendy.

 

Having a clear up so this is off to the compost bin.

 

No signs of mite damage on the other subjects - the 30ml plant is ok from the spray but looking worse from the stem snap and being moved about so will bin that as well - if mites take hold will be able to do a retest with the other plants at 30ml if 10 or 20 doesnt do the job at killing them.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by highgrower

[highgrower]

6 hours ago, T0M said:

Been battling mites for most of this year. Another member here suggested avid and forbid, it's not cheap though 50quid for 5ml of one and 10ml of the other, enough for 20L of mixed spray. I mixed both together in a sprayer two applications 3 days apart and I've not seen anything since. 

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

 

I appreciate the suggestions everyone who has chipped in for other ways to get rid of mites but there are plenty of other threads about them and trying not to derail this one to see if Dettol is an effective cheap solution as it is cheap and widely available in pretty much every country at most local corner shops without having to wait for something delivered.

 

No I dont work for Reckitt Benckiser before anyone asks.

 

 

 

[highgrower]

If anyone has a bad case of the mites at the moment with plants in veg or early on in flower could they please try taking a small cutting or plucking off a couple of badly infested leaves (preferably with eggs) and just dunk them in a little bowl of mixed up dettol at 10 and 20 ml per litre and see what happens to them? 

 

Also if possible leave the cut in some water over a few days to see if eggs hatch?

 

I do have mites quite badly but on plants at 10 weeks - sorry not that keen on this experiment to have me dunking a nice bud.

[Lean Bear]

Thankfully I can’t help you  but I admire & and am watching your experiment!

 

 

[Hempire Road]

Are you just using the clear dettol, not the brown antiseptic one? 

[Guest Donnyronny]

Good experiment this

 

the Cannabis scene is full of moronic bro science that has no actual photos or documentation, just ‘my mate did this’ 

 

glad to see a actual experiment that isn’t full of nonsense 

 

good job OP.  

 

[highgrower]

12 minutes ago, Hempire Road said:

Are you just using the clear dettol, not the brown antiseptic one? 

 

The brown/orange antiseptic one which makes water go cloudy and smells nice - i think contains pine oil which may act in a similar way as neem does but im hoping it will just kill them and their eggs and rather not like neem as a preventative.

 

Also if this works on mites i dont see why it wouldnt work on pretty much anything like thrips etc - i would just be careful when spraying not to let much drip onto the compost.

 

Its possible my experiment fails for killing mites at 20-30ml / litre concentration but would kill thrips or aphids or scale bugs - so I suppose part 1 is kind of useful to know that your not going to kill plants at that sort of concentration and if you have a pest you cant rid yourself on perhaps just spray a branch and see.

Edited August 24, 2021 by highgrower

[highgrower]

I have some broad beans and one of them has mites so have used that for a test on the killing power at 20ml

 

As you can see quite badly munched.

 

 

I have circled one of them so you can see they are spider mires - plus if you look at above pic you can see webbing on the leaf vein.

 

 

 

 

The cutting then got a dip in dettol solution at 20ml per litre - like dip in and submerged and then out again - not left it in for long at all.

 

 

 

 

I then just left it for a minute or so

 

 

 

On re-examination on the leaves I do not see anything moving - there were other small insects on the leaf some bigger and some smaller than the mites but i dont see a thing moving now and do see dead mites so assume most didnt just decide to let go and go for a swim when dipped - I cant comment on eggs and doubt these few leaves will last very long but will let them be and look over them again in a few days.

 

So as a sort of a conclusion to part 2 of the experiment I would suggest that dettol at 20ml per litre is effective at killing mites and other stuff on broad bean leaves - so no reason for it not to work for our purposes - I did dip the whole leave but assume a decent spray would coat the leaf in the same way - the water tension seems to be broken by dettol so should make spraying easy.

 

As with any good science it would be good if an someone else gives this a go not much needed to verify this other than some plant with mites or other pest and some dettol - but next time I get mites on plants in veg I think I may be reaching for dettol before spuffing cash on other solutions - well at least on a tester plant.

 

I havent killed the test plant which was sprayed at 30ml yet and it seems to be springing back to health so its possible that there is a bit of headroom between what concentration kills mites and which kills plants.  Plus I dont think mites could build up an immunity to dettol as they can with other stuff - not sure but suspect so.

 

Also if the dip or spray if effective in killing them so quickly it may be sensible to then possible spray down the plants after say 15mins with water to rinse it off - not sure how that would effect eggs but I suspect would be better for the plants rather than let them absorb any dettol left - I suspect on little plants and very small new growth even at 20ml per litre you might get a bit of burn.

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by highgrower

[Exhale]

@highgrower wicked little experiment mate thanks for putting the time in to this and documenting, as you know I've used predators in the past and this time in the Nursery I used SmC but you also know they gain resistance - hopefully this is a new avenue that works not just for costs sake but to have an extra tool in the arsenal against these little shits!

[highgrower]

So not quite a week later but the mites didnt seem to want to take to the the dettol sprayed male plants - I have just looked over them and cannot see anything moving - no eggs, no new damage - new leaves look nice and healthy other than a bit droopy and needing a water.

 

The 30ml one is ok but think it as been affected by the concentration and looks like its clawing a bit but given time would grow it out.

 

 

 

 

The other two look fine - forgotten which is which.

 

 

 

So inconclusive as to how well it works on infested plants as I havent been able to infest these but is possible the earlier dettol spray was working as a preventative or still had some killing power after i wiped the web onto the plants and the mites died.

 

 

After rechecking the ingredients of dettol im pretty sure it has left a residue on the leaves the main anti bacterial component is Chloroxylenol which has a high boiling point plus caster and pine oils which both wouldnt evaporate off - so just again not something I would even think of using in flowering.

 

I am also thinking there may be other things out there like jeyes fluid at low concentrations which could also possibly be used but thats beyond the scope of this experiment.

Edited August 28, 2021 by highgrower

[CriticalEddie]

On 8/24/2021 at 10:48 PM, Donnyronny said:

Good experiment this

 

the Cannabis scene is full of moronic bro science that has no actual photos or documentation, just ‘my mate did this’ 

 

glad to see a actual experiment that isn’t full of nonsense 

 

good job OP.  

 

+1, Good post OP. Watching this eagerly, I don't have anything heavily infested to test for you, but looking forward to some results.

[highgrower]

Not much to report other than no sign of mites on the tester plants or the plants I have in veg which were all sprayed with 15-20ml of dettol and no ill effects.

 

Hopefully this is useful for other people - i think i may do a quick spray as a preventative a day before next flipping to 12/12.

[CriticalEddie]

28 minutes ago, highgrower said:

Not much to report other than no sign of mites on the tester plants or the plants I have in veg which were all sprayed with 15-20ml of dettol and no ill effects.

 

Hopefully this is useful for other people - i think i may do a quick spray as a preventative a day before next flipping to 12/12.

I am very interested in the fact that it seems the mites don't want to go near the tester plants after Dettol application, almost like some sort of residual protection. 

[highgrower]

For a few days after the spray the plants have a dettol smell to them - it does contain pine oil and caster oil which may act in a similar way to neem as well.