IPA and The UK.

[Onzuka]

Don't get excited, I'm refering to Isopropyl alcohol, NOT India Pale Ale.

So I've read loads of postings over the years about this product, but never given it a try. It seems to be in every Minimart and drug store in the US of A, but it certainly is not here in the UK. I've tried all the majors, Lloyds, Boots, etc, but no success. It seems that our nanny authorities believe us to be drinking it with our Coke or tonic water.

I've been troubled this summer more than ever with scale insects (mealies) and had to do something. They were quickly taking over my quite extensive collection of Astrophytums and something had to be done.

A quick search on Ebay and I found a company offering 5 litres, packed in 1 litre plastic bottles and delivered to my door for the princely sum of £12.60. I placed the order last Sunday and it arrived on Friday morning.



Here is what you are looking for.

I don't work on Friday afternoons so it was out with my 1 litre spray bottle from Poundland and into the greenhouse for a trial. There was no problem finding targets to spray and I gave them both barrels!

This stuff is LETHAL, it sure doesn't take prisoners. It totally wets the plants, unlike water, and the mealies almost instantly turn green. They are effectively killed instantly. None remain providing that you completely wet the plants. Ten minutes later and the plants are completely dry and so far I've seen nothing detrimental happening to them.

I've now sprayed all my Astrophytums, because they're the plants the insects go far, I never see mealies on my Lophophoras. It's taken approximately 750 ml to clean the plants, so I've enough for several treatments. I've no idea whether or not it kills the eggs, I'll report again in a while if I see anything.

Lastly, let me add that I have no interest whatsoever in the company that I bought the alcohol from.

Steve

[iann]

Five litres should last you a good while! Not easy to find, but search for cleaning supplies. It is used for cleaning in electronics and sometimes more generally. Maplin sell it, but more expensive than you paid already.

You might want to try surgical spirit. Not exactly the same, but close and much easier to find in the UK.

[Grimm]

You might want to try surgical spirit. Not exactly the same, but close and much easier to find in the UK.

In the UK companies add Castor Oil to surgical spirit, or at least the bottle I have contains it. As far as I know, although the main ingredient evaporates off, the castor oil doesn't so it would stay on the cactus Happy to be proved wrong though!

I have some Maplin IPA, and it's FAR more expensive than £12.60 for 5L!

[Onzuka]

You might want to try surgical spirit. Not exactly the same, but close and much easier to find in the UK.

In the UK companies add Castor Oil to surgical spirit, or at least the bottle I have contains it. As far as I know, although the main ingredient evaporates off, the castor oil doesn't so it would stay on the cactus Happy to be proved wrong though!

Yes, I looked at surgical spirits and there were quite a few additives which I feared could leave a residue on the plants. It's no good curing a problem only to kill the patient. I also looked a white spirits and methylated spirits and rejected those also. The Isopropyl alcohol is 100% pure, so the label says, and leaves no residue at all behind when it's evaporated off.

Does anyone know if it kills the eggs along with the adults?

Now I know where to get it from, I will always have some around me. It's just so easy and effective.

Steve

[iann]

White spirit is definitely a no-no, very very bad for plants! Methylated spirit might be OK, but again it always has something added. I believe that in the UK, meths somewhat ironically has a small amount of IPA added to it, but also a solvent similar to acetone which might not be good, and a tiny tiny amount of an extremely bitter flavouring.

I don't think that IPA will kill eggs. In any case you'll certainly need to spray more than once to remove any sort of infestation. I'm surprised that mealies went green. I'd think the first colour change would be simply from washing their coating off, but I don't think they're green underneath.

[Onzuka]

Yes, olive green was the colour! They were immediately wetted and changed colour from light grey.

I've had my 10x lens out every evening since I sprayed and all I can see is corpses, this stuff is lethal and I wish that I had made the effort to obtain some years ago. I've also read reports that it's equally effective against red spider mites, we'll see.

Steve.

[iann]

Killing mites is easy, IPA will do it. Killing all of them is impossible, IPA won't do it.

[greenknight]

Fortunately IPA is cheap, you can just hit 'em again - they can't develop resistance to it.

[iann]

I'm looking for IPA concentrate, I could go through five litres in a month Wouldn't that be something, if you could get a little tub of powder and dilute it to 10 gallons of alcohol.

[iann]

Not exactly concentrate, but for a thousand pounds it should be!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ISOPROPYL-ALC ... SwgQ9VspTE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[graffiti]

Am I reading this right that Isopropyl isn't available readily in the UK? I can get 94% Iso at any pharmacy for less than $1.

[iann]

Am I reading this right that Isopropyl isn't available readily in the UK? I can get 94% Iso at any pharmacy for less than $1.

It isn't as readily available as in the States.

[HP22B]

We prefer iPrOH to IPA "in the business" to avoid just this confusion