Anyone heard of "mouse milk?"

[talyce66]

The last local orchid society meeting I went to, someone was talking about a recipe for a concoction he called "mouse milk." I wish I had a pen and paper for notes, but he explained that you mix alcohol and a little dish soap with some water? I am not sure what all you mix up, but you rub it on the leaves of orchids to kill insects and mites. He explained that the alcohol suffocates the pests. Does anyone know the recipe or anything similar?

[Phantasm]

I've never heard it called "mouse milk", but variations of such a concoction have been used for years. I use rubbing alchohol to suffocate scale and mealybug, and it also works well on contact for slugs. If you want to add soap, it will help to suffocate these pests also, and it operates as a "sticker". You could also use just soap and water or insecticidal soap and water.

[jim blanford]

I use 8 oz of alcohol & 8 oz Dawn dish soap & 16 oz water and use it as a spray it works great. Jim.

[cb977]

I just had to do a Google search...and I now know more about milking mice than I ever thought I would!

[talyce66]

I appreciate the input. I guess I could just take a rag with some alcohol and rub the leaves. The same fellow at the meeting mentioned that too. I am afraid of too much dishsoap for some reason. I tried it on different plants, and the leaves turned brown. Maybe there was something in the soap they didn't like!

[lindad3406]

Originally Posted by cb977

I just had to do a Google search...and I now know more about milking mice than I ever thought I would!

OMG too funny.

[Tindomul]

Originally Posted by cb977

I just had to do a Google search...and I now know more about milking mice than I ever thought I would!

Now remember, mice are mammals too.
Why do they call this mouse milk?

[Pippin]

Keep it simple. 70-99% isopropyl alchool will kill whatever dares to walk on the leaves of your orchids.
Any extra ingredient might harm. Other household ingredients are oils and soaps (dishwashing soaps). But I would not mix alchools with oils and soaps (oils and soaps are fine together), some people might disagree, but that's my point of view and I'm sticking to it.

[Neverend]

Oh god I wish there was some kind of spray I can use to kill those damn mites crawling all over my orchids, so sick and tired of wiping them with diluted soap, especially when they are in all the hard-to-reach areas!

[Pippin]

Isopropyl alcohol over 70 % is pretty effective on mites.
Soaps and oils can do a good job to ( personally I don't really like soaps and oils, they work fine, is just a matter of personal preference).

If you don't like those go for the big guns.