Bonide Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew, 16 oz Concentrate Outdoor Insecticide and Mite Killer for Organic Gardening

So I reviewed a Zevo insect trap earlier and now I'm reviewing this Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew. I also bought this for a fungus gnat problem after watching a youtube video of a doc who said this works. Well, it works. I've seen a marked decrease in fungus gnats and I use 2 ounces to a gallon of distilled water and water my plants with a sprinkler can so it can really soak into the soil. There is no smell and it's very easy to mix and apply. A small bottle goes a long way. I've watered my plants 3 times now with it and, along with the Zevo trap, I think I'm finally getting somewhere.

Our orchids are blooming again!! We defeated the thrips using this product and now have some wonderful blooms here in Florida. Previously, a spike would emerge from the plant and get about three or four inches long and then turn black and shrivel. I applied this product weekly for four of five weeks and now the thrips have stopped eating the emerging blooms on the vandas and cattleyas. I understand I need to keep on top of these pests and also mix in alternative pest control methods because from the reading I've done thrips are notoriously difficult to control/eliminate. All good for now though.

Bio Fungicide that kills caterpillars on fruit. It is a safe to use and has a short life on the fruit.

This seems like good stuff and seemed to help with a leaf miner issue. We had an issue with leaf miners on our citrus trees (all new growth/leaves were getting destroyed all season) and we read that this would help. We waited until winter, when leaf miners go mostly dormant, per the instructions of our local nursery where we bought our citrus trees. We sprayed the trees with this, diluted according to instructions on the label. A number of months went by and there were no leaf miners! We did notice some minimal damage from leaf miners after a number of months and reapplied again, but no serious damage this year, thanks to this stuff. We probably should have kept applying every couple of months and my guess is we wouldn't have had an issue. We avoided spraying more often, in part because we've read that the active ingredient in this, spinosad, is killing honey bees, and we were trying to use it as little as possible to save the bees! As an FYI – a little of this goes a long way. You only need a small amount (mixed with water) to spray all over 4 small trees thoroughly. This bottle will last a while and is so much more reasonably priced then buying it already diluted and mixed for you in a spray bottle.

I’m excited to try this to kill or bugs and mostly tiny worms that have been infiltrating inside my fruit trees in my orchard and on top of my outdoor plants around our home. I will be using the concentrate in a sprayer with water to kill bugs. The video shows the size of the container in my hand. The smell is not strong as all, I would call it a peaceful smell and the lid is secure and doesn’t leak. The color of the concentrate is a clear/off white/yellow tinted color.

This stuff works. If you have tried all other organic remedies like dish soap, oil, cayenne pepper/capsicum, Neem, Organicide, etc, and nothing worked. Then this is your best bet while still being organic friendly. Anything stronger and you have to start looking into true chemical pesticides which as we are all finding out these days, is something that should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. I had a quadruple invasion of stink bugs, cabbage loopers, leaf miners/borers, web worms, and the occasional aphid (but they werent really doing much harm compared to the other four). My garden was being decimated and while you can never reverse the damage, you can stop it in its tracks and allow things to recover. I sprayed this stuff over everything I planted, even if it wasnt damaged so the bugs had no where to run. Sure enough things improved and all of it recovered! Ive had sprays that kill or burn leaves, cause them to curl, and even mutate fruits. This spray did none of that and rooted out of all 4 pests! There MIGHT have been a few leaf miners that survived, but I was never sure if it was old damage or new, but even if they had survived, the new damage was minimal. After my garden recovered, I lightly sprayed 1x every 2 weeks over the soil and bottom of the plants just as a barrier and as a precaution. This stuff seems to dissolve in water fairly easily, so if it rains heavily in your area, you may have different results and have a need to adjust accordingly. If youve tried everything in the organic section, look no more and grab this!

Worth it! I was buying the premade bottles because of convenience, but after using 2 bottles in the span of a month I looked into getting the concentrated version and boy am I glad I did! There's so much product in the bottles and you dont need that much to refill one of the premade bottles. Yes this cost more than the premade, but when you think of how many bottles I can make with this stuff its easily an amazing deal. This bottle will easily last me a year+. Also not to mention this stuff has helped me fix my spidermite and thrip infestation in just a few applications. Would definitely recommend this product!

People who grow things organically say that this is a good thing to use for pest control. Unfortunately this didn’t work for my issues with thrips or spider mites. I used it in a closed greenhouse. My friend uses it on his plants and highly recommends it but he uses it mixed with horticultural oil at the highest recommended amount. I believe that amount is 4TBS per gallon. However, in my hot, dry desert heat, if I use horticultural oil in temperatures above even 72 degrees, the leaves on all my plants drop off and I lose some so I can’t do that. My other friend lives near the ocean and she said that she experienced the same thing using the horticultural oil. She just tried this Captain Jacks by itself recently and said that it didn’t work for her thrip issues. She called a pest professional. He told her that Captain Jack’s has only 1.1% of the active ingredient but there is a product that has 11% of the active ingredient so she is going to try that. It makes me wonder if I could just try upping the dose of this product so that it might work? If I can get this product to work at a stronger dose, it will be a lot cheaper than other pesticides out there for thrips and spider mites. I also tried this as a drench for a pest issue of springtails in the soil. I used it ant 1 ounce per gallon but gave plants 3-4 feedings of it over an 2 week period. I have not seen springtails since then annd it’s been a month annd an half since that time. I also noticed that during this time my issues with fungus gnats COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED which was GREAT. So, it appears to kill fungus gnat larvae which eat roots of our plants in the soil. I appreciate that it is all natural, friendly to people and animals. The smell is minimal especially when compared to other products with the same purpose. It looks like a thick, white colored cream. The size is good for the cost overall. So, I can say that it works as a drench for pests in soil like springtails and fungus gnat larvae. But it doesn’t work for the biggest issue I have here: thrips and spider mites. So, I’m giving it 3 stars.