Insect spray made from the insect you want to kill

[Bobberman]

Has anyone ever used a spray made by getting several bugs you want to kill and grinding them up in a blender with water and making a spray from them??? It seems that every insect has a disease just like man doe that is produced by the dead of that species! Just like a weak plant dies from a disease that a healthy plant can withstand so too a bug will die from the spread of parts and its body fluids!

[cynthia_h]

Can you provide any specific examples? If not, this starts to sound like one of those "wild tips I read on the Internet."

But if there are specific examples we can check out for ourselves (I have a couple of--ah--plentiful insects), this would be terrific!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[rainbowgardener]

I have read about using dead insects, not so much to kill others but to repel them. Here's an example:

Other Natural Ways to Control Japanese Beetles
One method turns the beetles' scent-following instinct against them. Kill the first few beetles you see by crushing them. Collect the dead beetles in a bucket and fill it with water and a mild detergent. Place the bucket where a prevailing breeze can waft the scent to approaching beetles.
Create a paste from the dead beetles and spread it on the ground near plants you want to protect. Dead insects will repel others of their kind from approaching.

Read more: https://www.doityourself.com/stry/making-a-japanese-beetle-spray#ixzz1B7JeOoN3

But the part about creating a paste of dead japanese beetle bodies, might be beyond my level of squeamishness! I had quite a few dead japanese beetle bodies on hand for a while last year, but to crush them up an make a paste and smear it around??? More than I could do. I felt bad enough drowning all those beautiful shiny beetles!

[The Helpful Gardener]

This is in direct opposition to advice I have heard for years NOT to crush beetles as the pheremone release CALLS other beetles, rather than repels them... I do understand the idea of developing chitin-eating bacterias and such that might compromise the beetles, but shrimp shells work there without the threat of pheremone release...

I am completley unsure of either position at this point, and Cynthia's call for testing seems entirely called for at this point...

HG

[Bobberman]

This may be similar to what happens when a spray is made from a dead insect. It seems every insect has a poblem with creatures that are already inside it. making a spray from the dead insect may cause the inside invader to become more populated and kill the host. I will do more reserch on this since I read it in organic gardening years ago! here is a link that may open some new things to everyone!
+++

https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05573.html

[Odd Duck]

Anybody that lives where fire ants abound has likely had experience with multiple fire ant bites. It has always seemed to me that a fire ant is more likely to bite near a spot where another ant has been crushed. I've learned to try to pick them off, then crush them, instead of crushing them in place if possible. If you crush them against your skin it's like inviting the next one to bite in the same place and seems to make them even more likely to bite.

[cynthia_h]

here is a link that may open some new things to everyone!
+++

https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05573.html

We've had many discussions here at The Helpful Gardener about beneficial nematodes, the subject of the Colorado State Univ. Extension fact sheet you link to. We've also had many discussions about parasitizing wasps and other beneficial insects which "just so happen" to use plant-destroying insects to begin their own lives.

The group discussion last year on Teaming with Microbes, Chapter 8, dealt with nothing but (beneficial) nematodes:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=173603

If you'd like to start a new thread about beneficial nematodes or other beneficials, please check around via Search; there may be an established thread with the same information. Continue that thread first *if* it contains the same information.

Otherwise, start a new thread with a title describing the material to be found "inside." At this point, I seriously doubt that anyone looking at the title of this thread ("Insects destroyed from within") + its first post (crushing insects to repel others of the same species) will expect to find anything about beneficial nematodes.

Cynthia
/mod hat on/