I ain't gonna lie, but I am gonna LYE

The tomatoes are ripening now.  Each day we keep our eyes on the ripening fruit and endeavor to pick them and bring them in before the predators eat them first.  We have birds that will peck on a red ripe tomato, squirrels that enjoy taking a bite or three out of them as well.  But the biggest pest, by far, is the stink bug. We don't like spraying chemicals on foods that we're going to be eating, so we've been looking for a natural method to kill or repel these dreaded insects.

Homegrown tomatoes

As the weather warms up, stink bugs appear in the vegetable garden.  They are kind of hard to spot as they will land on the tomatoes and will circle the vegetable opposite of where you are looking.  I was able to get a picture of this one by running my fingers on the bottom side of the tomato.  This made him circle around to the top.

The Dreaded Stink Bug

If you smash them with your fingers, they emit a chemical from their abdomen that really stinks, hence their name.  The stink bugs cause significant damage to our tomatoes each year.  They will land on the tomato and bite the fruit.  They release a toxin into the fruit that causes the outside of the tomato to turn yellow.  The interior below the yellow sting will turn white and hard.  That is called "cloudy spot."  It is unsightly and ruins an otherwise perfect fruit.  You can cut away the affected pieces and eat the remainder.  But it would be nice to find something to eliminate this pest.

Tricia was doing some reading and came across an article that said that lye soap was used as an insecticide in the past.  We eventually plan on making our own lye soap, but for now we purchase it.  A quick search on the Internet turned up the following post from Appalachian Heritage Soaps by Beth Ann Weber.  In that link, the author says that lye soap has been used as an insecticide for over 200 years.  

She says that the way it works is due to the fatty acids in true soap.  Lye soap contains fatty acids made from animal fat.  Those fatty acids in the soap get into the exoskeleton of insects and begin to break down the cell walls, killing the insect. Sounds interesting.  She has a recipe for making it:  Grate a tablespoon of lye soap and add it to a 1/2 cup of hot water.  Once it has dissolved, add 2 Tablespoons of dissolved soap into a quart of water.  We followed the directions and mixed up a batch.

Lye Soap Insecticide

I went out to the garden and sprayed a bunch on all the tomatoes.  It seemed to annoy the stink bugs, but I couldn't really tell if it repelled them.  I picked a few near ripe tomatoes to bring inside as I was spraying. When I brought the tomatoes in, I discovered that I had a hitch-hiker - a stink bug travelled in with me attached to the tomato.  We had a perfect 'lab rat' to see what the lye soap would do.  Tricia gave the Stink Bug a liberal spraying of lye soap and lo and behold...

A Bug's Life Death!

The Stink Bug turned over on his back and died promptly!!  When we went to the garden, there appeared to be less stink bugs on the tomato plants.  I think this method has promise, but you have to apply every day.  I also have a friend who uses a battery powered vacuum cleaner to suck up the stink bugs from her tomatoes. We'll keep trying the lye soap concoction as it seems to be the best option for organic methods of killing/repelling stink bugs.