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nafex - [NAFEX] Re: Groundhawgs & CO2 & fireants/orange peels

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  • From: "Rodney Eveland" <reveland@collinscom.net>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Re: Groundhawgs & CO2 & fireants/orange peels
  • Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 21:54:15 -0700

The active ingredient that kills the fireants with your orange slurry
is d'limonene which is the stuff that squirts out when you sqeeze
orange peels. It is used in cleaning agents, as a surfactant (although
it works best when combined with other surfactants), as an insecticide
and as a herbicide in certain applications. Some people mix it and
other surfactants with herbicides such as 2-4-D to help penetrate the
waxy coating found on many weeds.

d'Limonene dissolves a protective layer of wax from the exoskeletons
of insects causing them to suffocate and die.

I suppose the more crushed peels in your orange slurry, the more
potent it would be, but the stuff isn't all that expensive and you
can mix it with water to form an emulsion that would still be pretty
effective and allow you to cover a greater area. As far as flour and
Diatomaceous Earth - rain/moisture spoils the expected results.

The following url says that vinegar can also be used as a herbicide.
http://www.barc.usda.gov/anri/sasl/vinegar.html

The following statement is gonna make me try it out on Canada thistle
this spring, summer and fall: Control of annual weeds with vinegar
at the 5 % acetic acid concentration was variable. Canada thistle
shoots were highly susceptible with 100 percent kill by 5 % vinegar.
However, there was re-growth from Canada thistle roots.

Canada Thistle is very persistent and you must be too if you hope to
kill it without using a registered herbicide and even then as it never
crops evenly you will nearly always miss spraying all of the ones in
your yard/area with one, two, three or even more sprayings.






  • [NAFEX] Re: Groundhawgs & CO2 & fireants/orange peels, Rodney Eveland, 02/05/2004

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