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Is Dr. Bronner's Castile soap harmful to soil life?

 
gardener
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I have a major infestation of Harlequin bugs. My current strategy is to kill them by hand, and or put them into a bucket of soapy water. I know I'm killing lots of bugs, but continue to find new infested plants. I don't spray anything organic or other. I strongly believe in letting nature keep the balance. That being said from my understanding Harlequin bugs as adults have no natural predators. I have thought about mixing a strong soapy water with the Dr. Bronner's Castile soap in a spray bottle to kill adults when I see them. I would only spray it directly on the bug, but you know some of the soapy water is going to end up in the soil. I have thought about placing something under where I spray to catch the extra, but even then some is bound to end up in the soil.
My ultimate strategy is to encourage nature to build the best soil full of life I can, so I don't want to do anything to kill, or damage the soil.
I know a lot of people cover the crops that attract these kinds of bugs, but I plant polyculture style, and have a little of everything in all beds, so this is kind of difficult.
The question is what is the lesser of the two evils so to speak?
What do you think? What have you done to combat stink bugs?
Thanks
 
steward
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Trying to kill bugs with soap is good though a lot might alter soil health.

Kill bad bugs and the good bugs that live in the soil, the microbes.

I have no experience though.

Would dropping the bugs into plain water kill them?  That is my method for some caterpillars  ....
 
pollinator
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Plain water is worth trying first honestly. Some bugs drown fine in a bucket of water, no soap needed. If you do spray with soap, keeping it dilute and rinsing the foliage after helps reduce the impact on beneficial insects and soil. Dr Bronner's is milder than most but any surfactant will cause some damage to microbes if it soaks into the soil regularly.
 
pollinator
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We have "laundry to landscape". Well laundry to a 36'x24' mulch bed. I have QTY 3 - 2" pipes with holes drilled in them at the top, 1/3 mark and 2/3 mark. The run on grade and are in a 16"x16" deep mulch swale, so to speak. We grow all kinds of stuff in there.

We only use diluted castile soap for our laundry and in 2-1/2" years of having the system in place, I have not noticed any issues whatsoever. I imagine spraying diluted castile soap on the plants should be fine based on all of the plants we have in that mulch bed.
 
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Most insects breathe through their bodies.
Because of the surface tension in plain water, they will not drown in it.
A little bit of soap, because it is a surfactant, asphyxiates them.

A few drops of dish soap in a spray bottle of H2O is all it takes.

Or one can use a little neem oil in that sprayer.
Neem oil is an organic plant extract from India.
It is edible for us, and does no harm to our plants.
 
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