I remember hearing once …
That farmers in India(?) used soft drink as insecticide on their crops as a cheap and effective alternative to insecticide.
The idea was that the sugar coating would attract ants onto the crop that would then eat the bugs they found there but did not eat the crop themselves.
Is this true?
Heh. I did a little perfunctory googling, and all the hits I got had to do with pesticide contamination in soft drinks. So, if it did, work, maybe that’s why.
OK, here’san article that talks about some USDA research on sugar as a pesticide.
The mechanism isn’t anything to do with attracting beneficials to eat the bad bugs, however. Sugar causes the exposed insects to dehydrate.
Ignoring the question about effective, how is this cheap?
I can buy soft drinks on sale for about 25¢ per 12 oz. can, or about 2¢ per ounce.
Malathion, a common insecticide, sells for about $23 for a quart of concentrate (in garden & nursery stores; farmers buying it in large quantities pay less). That concentrate can produce up to 192 gallons, or 12,288 ounces. That works out to less than 1/5th of a cent per ounce, or about 1/10 of the sale price of soda pop.
Looks like soft drinks are about 10 times more expensive!
Re unusual substances for insect control I remember these infomercials from approx 10 years ago where this guy was all super gung ho about using dishwashing detergent mixed into the water hose for lawn and garden watering. I forget exactly how exactly it was supposed to benefit the lawn.
I’m guessing that was Jerry Baker. He often suggested using lemon scented dish soap in combination with other safe to mix (non-chlorinated) household stuff. He never claimed it would kill bugs. Instead, he said that they weren’t particularly fond of the lemon scent and would perhaps go elsewhere. The dish soap also aided in getting dust and pollutants off of the greenery. Which in turn made other chemical treatments (stuff containing actual insecticides) more effective. When I actually cared about how green my lawn was, I found that generally following Jerry Baker’s advice (he wrote a couple of books) did end up with me having the greenest lawn in the neighborhood.
That only applies if you’re buying the soft drinks in cans, at the retail price. I imagine that if you buy the concentrate, it works out substantially cheaper. I don’t have numbers to back that up, though.
I did find this YouTube video, which seems to suggest that it’s pesticide contamination that has the beneficial effects. Video
Exactly: I guarantee that McDonalds and other similar eating establishments are not paying 2 cents per oz for soft drinks.
Would it matter if the soft drink was carbonated? I am not sure if the acidity would mean anything but I can’t imagine the bubbles having much effect.