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  • Author Author: m.ratcliffe
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Automated Green House Blog:12 - Pesticide Doser, Cheap DIY Mister

m.ratcliffe

In one of my other blog video's I showed you my infestation of butterfly and caterpillars. It is a heavy infestation and will be a hard one to eradicate.

 

This Blog will cover how to make a cheap DIY pesticide doser that will reach every small nook and cranny of your grow room to really get on top of a heavy pest problem. I have used this many times in the past with great success after traditional spraying failed in my grow rooms, chicken pens and kennels. It could also be used with pure water for any humidifying , fog, misting needs.

 

 

 

 

What you will need:

[The Prices are estimates]

 

>24v Ultrasonic Mister [£2]

[You may want multiple units for large rooms/ large amounts of mist]

image

 

 

>24v Power supply

Any source of 24V DC, make sure it can supply enough current for your planned number of misters and Fan.

Misters have a female 5.5mm Power jack [common size for wall mounted power supplies]

 

>24v PC Fan £1

image

 

> A Container Of your Choice with removable LID [Wide and shallow is better]

 

>Fan Speed Controller [Optional] £2

The basic ones just work as a voltage divider, so you can make your own from a potentiometer if you like.

image

 

>5.5mm 12v splitter cable [Optional] £2

image

 

How to build it:

As Always this is just a set of instructions, follow them at your won risk.


>I'm not including a wiring diagram with this blog, everything operates at the same voltage and it is as simple as wiring all parts in parallel.

>Cut 4 holes in the top of the container you plan to use, two the size of the fan you selected and two smaller ones for the waterproof bungs on the mister wires.

>Mount the fan so it is blowing air into the container [stops the motor getting wet] and alter the mister lead length in the bungs to place them in the middle of the container away from your inlet and exhaust holes.

>Add a exhaust pipe if you want to direct the mist to somewhere else.

 

How To use:

As a general mister or humidifier to keep cool in summer or for a Halloween project, just add water power it on and let it do its thing, use the fan controller knob to control the amount of mist you want.

 

As a Pesticide doser:

>Best to do this over night so the plants are less stressed

>Close all windows, shut of exhaust fans [make it a closed system]

>Fill the tub with the water soluble pestacide of your choice [see link below for a home made nicotine based pestacide]

>Turn the mister on and leave the room imediatly, check it is not leaking into places with people/ pets

>Come back int he morning, re open the windows and the live bugs should be gone.

>Repeat every few days to kill the new larva before they get the chance to lay eggs.

>A few repetitions usually work, if there is no effect change the type of pesticide, your pest might have become immune to your choice of poison.

 

You want the room to be cleaned to be full of mist, add extra ultrasonic misters as you need them if your room is large, position it so you get the best distribution of mist/fog.

If you are using this in an aquaponics system make sure to use a pesticide that is fish safe!

 

Here is my preferred "natural" Pesticide of choice, I usually use this first and seek alternatives if it does not work:

How to make a nicotine insecticide | eHow UK

 

Good Luck staying Pest Free, this is just my preferred method for heavy infestations, there are many other ways to achieve the same goal.

Parents Comment Children
  • in reply to balearicdynamics

    Water with a bit of mint extract, I use it as a air purifier/ scent every so often, the mist latches onto particles in the air and they fall out of the air and the mint keeps spiders out of my room and more importantly my electronic housings!  [seems to work because they usually like to use voltage regulators as heated beds].

     

    Could you reword this bit " how to you plan to set a protection when the pesticide "fog" is really working " I dont quite understand it.

  • in reply to m.ratcliffe

    Sorry for my language barer. This device is for pesticide distribution on the vertical farming structure. So I suppose (maybe just wrong) that when the pesticide (real one I mean) is vaporising, how do you protect the outside of the plants.

     

    Enrico

  • in reply to balearicdynamics

    I understand now completely. The language barrier is just something that comes with collaborating internationally, it is an expected small snag. My written English inst the best at times either and it is my mother tong.

     

    Most Insecticides or pesticides are plant safe, many of the more potent ones will advise not eating the plants until a decontamination period has passed [you really want to be staying away from these ones and only using them as a last resort]. So we dont worry about the plants coming into contact with the fluid, you could also rinse the plants with a pure water spray the day after using the insecticide to reduce the worry further.

     

    This is a cheaper version of the little smoke grenade you set fire to in a greenhouse [but a lot cheaper in the long run].

  • in reply to m.ratcliffe

    Thank you Michael. Interesting approach the water after the insecticide.

     

    Just my consideration (based on my personal experiences): do we can suppose that an inside controlled cultivar like a vertical farming is less subject to the wide number of potentially destructive damages affecting the outdoor traditional cultivation method? I am thinking to less insects or none, few bacteria and fungi, less wind and open air contamination etc. Or it is totally false ?

     

    Enrico

  • in reply to balearicdynamics

    You can reduce the chance of getting bad pests in a grow room by sealing it to to the best of your ability and using positive pressure inside [any air leaks will always flow outwards and not suck pests in] but It is still possible to get bad things into the grow room [ie on your cloths as you enter] and the conditions we control for best plant production are pretty good for breeding insects as well, so without any natural predators they can rapidly take control of your operation.

     

    I know of a few sealed grow rooms [one was a multimillion dollar unit at the local collage] and all of them have had an infestation at one point or another. But they do tend to stay bug free for quite some time, just when they do get bugs they get it worse than anything you will encounter outside.

     

    So in my opinion not totally false but a great engineering challenge if you ever want to claim a room is 100% effective against bugs.

     

    Some people use predator bugs to combat bad insects [Some type of wasp, ladybird etc] but they only really work if they are introduced before a major problem occurs, the greenhouse now is loaded with caterpillars and I would need Kg's of predator bugs to solve the problem. I tried the predator bug approach last year and it worked really well until they ate all of the insects and died from starvation [or emigrated, I'm still not too sure]. But I have none that survived to help me this year and they are expensive.