White oil is a home made insecticide spray used for controlling a wide range of insect pests in the garden. The spray works by blocking the breathing pores of insects causing suffocation and death. It is effective in the control of aphids, scale

Scale insect

The scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, generally classified as the superfamily Coccoidea. There are about 8,000 species of scale insects.-Ecology:...

, mealybug

Mealybug

Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm climates. They are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also acts as a vector for several plant diseases.-Distribution:Mealybugs...

, mites

MITES

MITES, or Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science, is a highly selective six-week summer program for rising high school seniors held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its purpose is to expose students from minority, or otherwise disadvantaged backgrounds, to the fields of...

, citrus leaf miner and smooth skinned caterpillars.

"White oil" is also an alternative name for mineral oil

Mineral oil

A mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of alkanes in the C15 to C40 range from a non-vegetable source, particularly a distillate of petroleum....

.

Recipe

The quantities vary depending on the source, but a typical mixture is 4 parts of vegetable oil to one part of dish-washing detergent (for washing by hand). Blend in a mixer until homogeneous

Homogenization (chemistry)

Homogenization or homogenisation is any of several processes used to make a chemical mixture the same throughout.-Definition:Homogenization is intensive blending of mutually related substances or groups of mutually related substances to form a constant of different insoluble phases to obtain a...

and store. Dilute 1:50 with water for use, spraying leaves from above and below.