Plant eating bugs!!!

[shadowwalker37148]

A neighbor has bugs eating her flower leaves and said she was going to put flour on the leaves. She said bugs eat this and die. She said she's always done this, and it works. shadowwalker37148
P.S. she also said she is going to leave a small dish of flour under her house for the mice to eat, she said they can't digest this and her cats won't get poisoned if they eat the mice????? anybody know if this works???

[AShadyElm]

This is interesting but I haven't found anything scientific to back up these claims. Flour is a wheat product so is unlikely (impossible?) to kill bugs or mice. I would think in the case of mice it would actually attract them since it would be a food source. The bugs might be leaving her plants alone (but not dying) because they dislike the gritty feel of the flour but again, that is just a very long stretch. Controlling bugs really depends on the type of insect and controlling mice in the house is best done by excluding them from entering and removing anything that would attract them (ie. food, cover such as leaves, trash, etc). Cats can be helpful in mouse catching but generally it depends on the cat - some are great mousers, others just aren't. Hope this helps.
--A

[drobinson]

If white flour actually kills insects and mice, can you imagine what it is doing to the human specie? Would flour work for slugs in the strawberry patch? They love to eat my best berries.

[the_pumpkin_queen]

Well I have had pet mice and currentl have pet rats and since they can eat products with flour in them, wouldn't this be false?

[shadowwalker37148]

All right, all right. I got the STRAIGHT story from her. The bugs can't digest the flour for some reason. As for the mice, you mix 2 parts flour to 1 part portland cement. mix the powders together and set out in a pie pan or something small sided so they can get to it. Set it into a shed or under the house so it will kinda stay powdery as long as possible. The cement will set up in the critters. I guess you can't ask questions when I get only part of the story!! Bad on me. shadowwalker37148

[goldpearl]

I know an old timer who sprinkles flour all over his garden to keep grasshoppers away. Must be something to it, if this 90 year old retired farmer has been doing it with success for so many years. Not sure why it would work but maybe it just confuses them. :confused:

[the_pumpkin_queen]

On another forum I was posting for ideas on getting rid of aphids and someone suggested flour as well. Maybe there is something to it afterall...

As for letting cement set up in the tummies of mice, that sounds a bit cruel. I could never do that.

[KimB]

As far as bugs not liking the gritty feel of the flour, that may be correct. The product Surround, which is a super-fine ground Kaolin clay is mixed with water and sprayed on plants to leave a protective coating. The bugs get it all over them which causes constant grooming and makes them leave. They may also be put off by the unnatural gritty feel to the plant surface and tricked into going elsewhere to lay eggs or dine. (It also protects the plants from sunscald.) If this has been proven, perhaps the flour idea isn't that much of a stretch!

[ipaintedmyhousewhite]

I have the little ants in my kitchen that are so ubiquitous (did I spell that right, lol) and they have decided to invade the flour canister this year, for the very first time. I opened it this morning and found several ants dead, and a couple suffering and moving slowly.

[KimB]

The ants probably died because the flour coated and therefore blocked their breathing passages located along the sides of their abdomen.

[dirtundernails]

I read that bran was a prefered food of some bugs, and they would eat it and drink the dew on the plants causing the bran to swell in their guts and burst them! One possible answer.


dun

[red1]

to drobinson:Would flour work for slugs in the strawberry patch? They love to eat my best berries

set a overturned lid near your berries fill with some beer and the slugs go in to a killer party...hey at least they are happy when they go.