| Unscientific Observation: Kava root as an insectic | |
| Rod | I use kava to a safe way to ward off ants from the kitchen counter tops. I stumbled on to this by accident. One evening while mixing a batch of Kava, I noticed some ants on the counter. I splashed a little kava on them to see what would happen. They all broke out ukuleles and started singing "Tiny Bubbles," while staggering off towards the palm tree in the back yard (just kidding)[:o)]. Really though, they totally didn't like the stuff. So another time, I had an area they kept returning to. No matter how many times I washed it with dish soap, they would come back. This time, I experimented. I wiped it down with a damp towel that had kava I had mixed up on it. It worked! The ants didn't return to the area. Now, If I have an ant problem, I just give it area a "kava wash down." I just though I'd share this experience in case someone in the scientific community wants to check it out, or if someone wants a safe way to get rid of ants. Aloha |
| yee | Your observation has been forwarded to an ant expert and other UH researchers. I speculate, for fun, that if they get back quickly then this is a dud. If they take a long time then you're probably onto something. (BTW sorry about the title limit on characters but I did chose to answer to this double post as it's the earliest time stamped for your discovery. Credit must be given where due as to who first made the discovery.[:)] I hope it turns out to make the case for kava.) Another observation is that I have noticed that my dog finds the smell of kava extremely repugnant. Her tail goes down and she shys her head away from ground kava root. She is a terrier-pitbull mix, approximately two years of age. Aloha, Jonathan Hawaiian Kava Center, LLC http://hawaiiankava.com |
| hcbitt | Rod and interested others, I contacted our ant expert in CTAHR, and this is what he found. "Skip, I have tried the kava brew on the big-headed ants and it doesn't work. I rubbed some solution liberally across the foraging path and as soon as it dried the foraging path was open again. So later I saturated the foraging path and surrounding area, it was able to repel the ants until the solution dried. It kind of sounds like the guy on Maui who made an ant repellent with the by product of cane(molasses) and citric acid. His label read "For effective ant control keep plants constantly wet with solution by spraying". I'm not kidding.! Glenn" I've asked Glenn to also evaluate kava on the white footed ant that is common in Oahu homes. The big headed ant is a outdoor ant that tends scale and aphids on crops in HI. Skip H.C "Skip" Bittenbender |