Hot Stuff!

   It works!  I am ecstatic!  It actually works! It burns!  I am not so ecstatic!  It REALLY BURNS!  By "it" I mean the potion that I created!  No, not any mysterious potion but rather a spray for the garden.  The tomato plants were quickly being made into green lace by some weird, little worms. Son and I handpicked all of the tomato (tobacco) worms and felt that we had ended a problem but, in reality, one had only begun.  Teeny, tiny worms were eating massive holes in the leaves of every plant. Something had to be done quickly!  So we turned to the internet to find an herbal potion to spray on the garden.  I am not one that condones the use of chemical sprays or powders but those worms were quite greedy. Michael found several sites that claimed that their herbal method was the best.  What did we do?  We combined them all into one huge recipe! Into the pot went garlic, onion and a bunch of different peppers.  A bit of water added to the pot and we were in business!  The whole mess was heated and then let sit for several hours. Whew!  This stuff even smelled hot!  I blended the concoction and then let it sit overnight.  This morning, the stuff was strained and poured into a spray bottle.  I added some dish washing liquid and headed out to test the gunk.

  Sure enough, those worms were doing a grand job of turning my tomato leaves in to lace.  Some plants had very little leaf left!  The time for testing was at hand!  (Or in hand!)  I turned a leaf upside down so we could observe the little varmints first hand.  The fiery stuff spewed from the spray bottle on to the leaves and my hand.  Duh...hey!  This stuff burned a bit!  That was when we noticed the worms starting to squirm. Their writhing soon turned violent and a few actually fell from the plant. Ha!  The stuff was working!  I sprayed another plant before Michael made the observation that "If it is so hot that it kills worms, does it kill the plant?" Uh, oh.  I had no clue.  To be on the safe side, we decided to let the plants sit for a while.  In the morning, if the two that I sprayed have not withered beyond recognition, I will spray the rest of the garden.  (As of late this evening, the plants look none the worse for wear!  Tomorrow the spray bottle shall be wielded yet again!)

  On a whim, I sprayed some to the yucky Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers with the molten lava-like goop.  Five of these critters had descended upon one of my daylilies.  Immediately after dousing them, the smallest of the five fell to the ground.  No squirming, no writhing, just instant death.  Wow!  It took a few minutes before the other four finally succumbed but my new found brew had done the job! NOTHING kills these things this quickly!  I was elated to say the least!  Of the billion or so Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers that hatched earlier in the spring, a million or so are still wreaking havoc on my plants!  Aha!  Take that, you varmints!  

  Now for any of you who wish to try my secret potion, I will share our recipe!  Just be warned....this stuff does BURN!  DO NOT GET IT ON YOUR BODY AND ESPECIALLY NOT IN YOUR EYES!  Duh...folks this is made with hot peppers and does hurt like crazy but if you are still adamant about trying it, the recipe follows.

Bug Burning Sauce

1 quart water
1 medium onion..cut in chunks
6 cloves garlic...smashed
6 Habanero Peppers
6 Jalapeno Peppers
1/3 cup Cayenne Pepper powder

3 Tablespoons Dawn Dish washing liquid

  In a medium pot, place the water, onion, garlic, Habanero Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers and the Cayenne Pepper.  There is no need to peel the onion or garlic. Bring this to a boil and turn off the heat.  Let sit until cool.  In a blender, mix until all of the large chunks are gone. Return to pot. Cover and let sit overnight.  The next day, strain the mixture and pour into spray bottle.  Add the dish washing liquid.  Do NOT shake. Gently turn from side to side to incorporate the two.  Your spray is now ready to kill some bugs or worms!  Hopefully, it won't kill the plants!  

DO NOT GET ON YOURSELF OR PETS!!!! THIS STUFF DOES BURN!!!  DEFINITELY KEEP IT AWAY FROM CHILDREN!!!!

Update!!!!!  This stuff did burn the tomato leaves but only time will tell if it actually kills the plant.  Good news is...no worms on these plants!  I will try diluting it a bit. If it still kills critters without burning plants, all will be good! At least there are no worms to multiply into lovely, egg-laying adults!