I have used this forever; well, as long as I can remember. Dad told me about it; and it works just great.. Neem oil has a dual purpose in the vegetable garden as both a pesticide and a fungicide. It works on arthropod pests that often eat your vegetables, including tomato hornworms, corn earworm, aphids and whiteflies. In addition, neem oil also controls common fungi that grow on vegetable plants, including: Mildews.
24 Amazing Benefits and Uses of Neem Oil for Plants - Safer® Brand
http://www.saferbrand.com/arti...

Jimsouth said: I have used this forever; well, as long as I can remember. Dad told me about it; and it works just great.. Neem oil has a dual purpose in the vegetable garden as both a pesticide and a fungicide. It works on arthropod pests that often eat your vegetables, including tomato hornworms, corn earworm, aphids and whiteflies. In addition, neem oil also controls common fungi that grow on vegetable plants, including: Mildews.
24 Amazing Benefits and Uses of Neem Oil for Plants - Safer® Brand
http://www.saferbrand.com/arti...

I also make a home made shampoo with Neem Oil. It kills & prevents head lice. It really does. My grand kids have never picked up head lice at school.

Could you post your recipe for your shampoo? My niece gets lice so bad every year, several times a year.

pepper23 said:Could you post your recipe for your shampoo? My niece gets lice so bad every year, several times a year.

This is one recipe. All recipes - formulas can be adjusted. Neem oil mixes readily with shampoos, lotions or creams.

Use 1 to 5 ml of neem oil for every 100 ml of shampoo or lotion/cream. (That's roughly half an ounce to 8 ounces).
Adjust the amount according to the intended use. For every day use a lower concentration is good enough. If you are battling some skin disorder, dandruff, parasite or similar, you may want to use more.
Be aware that neem oil stinks! (Of sulfur and garlic.) So be careful with the amount you use.
Only mix a small batch at any one time, ideally only as much as you will use. (Neem oil is not necessarily stable when mixed with other substances.)
You can keep a flask of neem oil with an eye dropper in the bathroom. Just mix the shampoo or lotion with a few drops of oil in the palm of your hand.
Neem oil can also be mixed with other carrier oils, for example olive or almond oil.

The amounts to use are the same: 2 to 5 ml of neem oil for every 100 ml of oil mixture.
Mask the horrible neem oil smell with a few drops of essential oil, like lavender or sandalwood.
Some people prefer to use tea tree oil. It gives the blend a more medicinal smell, plus tea tree oil is a wonderful medicinal oil as well. ---- Myself, I mix the neem oil with lavender oil and liquid castile coconut oil soap. I sometimes do a second hair washing with Pine Tar bar soap or even Fels Naphtha bar soap. Cold pressed organic Neem oil can be found on eBay; as can the liquid castile soap. There is a web site Old Whippersnapper. This guy makes incredible bar soaps. Where I get the Pine Tar soap. --- Almost any oil that can be safely applied to your skin, will kill head lice; but Neem oil & Tea Tree oil are probably the best ( antiseptic properties, etc. ). Neem oil does stink a bit, so I add lavender oil. You can experiment. Hey I'd rather put up with the Neem oil smell ( that can be easily washed out ) than put up with head lice.

Thyme oil is a great companion oil to Neem oil. Heavily antifungal and capable of disrupting the life cycle of nematodes. It is a hot oil and not to be used by itself without being diluted heavily in a carrier oil or even other mediums.

I buy a quart of liquid unscented castile soap, and mix the shampoo in an old shampoo squeeze bottle. SHAKE BEFORE USING. So 8 or 10 or 12 ounces of the liquid castile soap & maybe 3 or 4 teaspoons of the neem oil. Some fragrant oil also, to cover the neem oil smell. It doesn't smell good. So, maybe $20. or $25. a year for shampoo. Next time I'll buy a gallon of the liquid castile. Castile is usually made from olive or coconut oil. My mix also makes a good body wash. Probably best to mix a fresh batch once a week.

This summer I used neem oil to combat bugs in the garden. I mixed it, as instructed, with dish soap. Maybe I started spraying the plants too late but it did nothing to rid the basil plants of the caterpillars that were butchering them and on some other plants I saw sun damage the day after I applied the neem mix (and I always sprayed after sunset). The brand of neem I used is Naked Neem, 100% pure cold press, unrefined.

So now I'm not sure if I should use neem on my plants again.

_Bleu_ said:This summer I used neem oil to combat bugs in the garden. I mixed it, as instructed, with dish soap. Maybe I started spraying the plants too late but it did nothing to rid the basil plants of the caterpillars that were butchering them and on some other plants I saw sun damage the day after I applied the neem mix (and I always sprayed after sunset). The brand of neem I used is Naked Neem, 100% pure cold press, unrefined.

So now I'm not sure if I should use neem on my plants again.

I try to tolerate wasps in the garden. Predators that send shock waves throughout the caterpillar community. If you don't care for wasps, I suggest you lay out some praying mantis egg cases in the garden.

Hi Jim,

I have some mantises here, saw one yesterday, and would love to have even more BUT I also have dozens of hummingbirds that visit my plants and feeders (sometimes I see a couple of dozen at the same time in the garden) and mantises do prey on them. I watched a few videos that really broke my heart. I know it's nature doing its thing but...

I don't mind wasps at all but my garden doesn't seem to attract that many, though I've seen a few tiny ones on some plants.

I used to have mainly bougainvilleas, jasmines, a couple of roses and many succulents but recently I've added several vines and more roses. I hope that attracts more wasps.