Neem Oil - no thank you!

 

Now, a quick word about Neem oil, which has been flavour of the month amongst the organic/permaculture crowd for the past few years. What is it? "Neem oil is a naturally occurring pesticide found in seeds from the neem tree."

In my opinion, Neem oil is evil, evil, stuff, avoid it like the plague. It is extremely potent, stains the concrete if you spill it, stinks, and: 

...and it doesn't have much of a beneficial effect - in my opinion - on pests: it certainly did nothing at all on the aphid infestation on the lupins.

In fact, it seemed to kill off the ladybirds, rather than making inroads into the aphid population. 

To be strictly fair, perhaps I should say that when the aphids first moved in, I looked out for ladybirds and only found on average two of them per plant, over a large bed of lupins.

This is why I was persuaded by the owner to try Neem Oil - because we just didn't seem to have any decent number of ladybirds. But alas, despite following the best instructions on the internet (*laughs*), and the exact dilution and frequency of spraying details on the bottle, the lupins got worse and worse, and not a ladybird was to be seen. 

So it might have been coincidence, it might have been that the Neem Oil was working very slowly, and the ladybirds didn't like the neem-flavoured aphids... but in my opinion, the neem oil failed to control the aphids, and seemed to scare away the ladybirds.

When I tried Neem oil at home, against lily beetles, I'm afraid to say that it ruined the lilies - right

This was the result of one single spray, diluted as per instructions on the bottle, and as you can see, it simply killed off the tops of all the lilies, which meant no flowers that year.

I was not happy.

I threw away the Neem Oil and went back to the old-fashioned method of lily beetle control, ie ceaseless vigilance and crushing the little beasts with a thumbnail.

Quite apart from its lack of beneficial effects, I was quite shocked to find out, when I did some research, how potentially harmful it is - even the bottle carries a warning that it may cause an adverse reaction in someone with sensitive skin or a skin disorder like eczema.

Don't believe me - do some research for yourself. Just put something like  "Neem oil harmful" into a search engine, and see what you get. Here are a few which I have just pulled up, at random:

WebMD: "Taking Neem oil by mouth is extremely unsafe in children. Serious side effects in infants and small children can happen within hours after taking neem oil. These serious side effects include vomiting, diarrhoea, drowsiness, seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, and death."

 Organic gardening website: "Is it safe to eat vegetables sprayed with neem oil? Yes, you can eat vegetables sprayed with neem oil, but make sure you wash the vegetables thoroughly before consuming them. However, it's not advisable to spray neem oil on vegetables if you're going to consume them the next day."

Bobvila.com: "some neem oil products contain additives that can be irritants."

Pesticide product label: "Harmful if inhaled. Avoid breathing spray mist. Causes moderate eye irritation. Harmful if absorbed through skin."

So why would you want to use something with so many warnings, and which doesn't appear to be terribly beneficial to plants, and is actually extremely detrimental to lilies?

My answer: don't. As per the article about "natural remedies", the old-fashioned answers are usually the best, and that means keeping your plants in tip-top condition by regular feeding and watering: keeping on top of garden hygiene by ensuring good airflow around the plants, and clearing  up debris: and by constant vigilance: if you can catch an infestation early, it is much easier to deal with it.

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