I make my own insecticidal soap,which is probably about a tablespoon of dish soap to a gallon of water.You can add vegetable oil to give the solution more sticking power(but I never add it,as I think the oil can cause the burning due to the heat in our region).I only use this spray on flea beetles,that in the Spring can infest my cabbages,turnips & even horseradish(I spray it weekly when I see the beetles & stop when their numbers drop).I really don't get much of a aphid problem,but I'm sure this solution would work,as it is meant to be good on any soft bodied bug(the flea bettles are hard bodied,but it seems to attack their wings from my observations).Hope this helps & you can hopefully make your own spray for a few pennies.

Westhamutd, thank you for taking the time to reply. I apologize - my original post wasn't very clear. I already own Safer Insecticidal Soap. I've had it for awhile. I'm trying to figure out if there is a good use for it or if I should throw it away. I haven't found it to give positive or successful results on anything, yet.

Carol

Nothing to apologise for.I was actually the one that didn't explain very well.I tried that brand in the past(I did not use the concentrate,only the small ready to go hand held spray bottle).The small bottles do not go far & so I then researched what is in "insecticidal soap" & figured I can make my own(without the oil) for much less $ & also have it be even less toxic to beneficial bugs.

Now from some of the reading I've done,it is more effective if the solution is aggitated during spraying i.e give the bottle a good shake every few sprays.I really don't know if this will make your spray more effective,but it might be worth trying.Other than that,I would say make the solution a little stronger & see if that has a better impact.Hope this helps & best of luck

I find this stuff to be mildly effective against the pests listed. It's not a silver bullet by any means, but is the best "opening salvo" to dealing with a lot of things.

Slopfrog, which plants/pests responded positively, even a little bit? I haven't found a single thing on which this is effective - even as an opening salvo. (Great name!) I used it on tea scale on camellias. Zero response. Used it on aphids on Rose of Sharon and Colocasia. Another zero. I'm about to trash these two bottles but will keep them if they work on anything at all.

Thanks so much for your help.

Carol

You guys are just getting way too neat around your gardens. I draw the line on buying insecticidal soap to wash my bugs. The bugs around my garden are gritty, grimy, dirty little rascals and many of them stink to high heaven. You probably also buy that turtle wax stuff to shine up your gopher turtles too, Good Grief!! I have enough to do around here without washing & waxing and shining the bugs and critters. enuff said!!

Lou

LOL, Lou.

You know, I recently saw something interesting on the Dr Bronners soap website. They said that most liquid soaps these days don't really do anything to insects because they're made from detergents, not real soap, so you really are essentially just washing the bugs, and that only a true soap (not just theirs but anything that's really soap--they said if you see laurel sulfate in the ingredients it's not soap) will destroy the insect carapace.

Oops, didn't mean to post that yet. I meant to say that I haven't tested this yet, since I've got dunnaplenty Hairstreak cats/eggs everywhere right now and I don't want to do anything to disturb them.

I use the ready to use spray bottle version of this on my blueberry plants. I have found that it kills the bugs when they are sprayed on contact. But it really does not do a good job at preventing the bugs from coming back.

I sprayed last night and this morning, I saw the ants marching back on to the new blueberry growth and bringing their little leaf sucking aphid friends.

I have used the Gardensafe ready to use Neem and I found that to be slightly more effective.

Insecticidal soap and Neem oil only work on contact. They will kill any soft bodied insect.
Ants are not considered a soft bodied insect and that's why it does not work on them.
From the document linked below:
What is Insecticidal Soap?
All soaps are made of salts and fatty acids, but not all soaps are good for
killing insects. Some soaps can be highly destructive to plants and are
useful as herbicides. Insecticidal soaps, however, are specifically
formulated to kill insect pests while having few adverse effects to
people, plants and the environment.

Insects must come in contact with the soap before it dries in order to be controlled.
Therefore, thorough coverage to both tops and bottoms of leaves is essential. Do
not apply insecticidal soaps directly to water or use near a water source. Multiple
applications are needed to control most insects. Hard water is not effective for
mixing soap sprays, so use softened or distilled water for best results.
Read on for more info like this.

Here is a link that might be useful: Insecticidal Soap

I've successfully used it to fend off aphids before, and mealy bugs. It will kill them but in a lot of cases more just come back. I go to Neem next (often times I have to) and if that doesn't work I will start to get nasty. (Or just give up if it's an annual crop.)

I find soaps to be most effective in the winter. By late spring or summer the hordes are usually too much to deal with using it.

I use a mix of Dawn and alcohol, just straight full-strength rubbing alcohol and a couple squirts of Dawn, and spray it on everything, and it seems to work...mostly I get aphids on my Hoyas on the porch and keep a bottle near there....sally

I use this product on all my plants. I've used this product for several years and have been thoroughtly satisfied. It even gets the scale on my ZZ plants. I use it mainly on my houseplants beings as I have a greenhouse and the insects just love a warm spot in the winter. I also use the spray in the garden and on anything that has mealybugs, aphids, scale, etc. The main thing to remember is to follow-up when applying insecticide. You have to come back a week or so later and get the ones you missed and the little ones that have hatched out since your last spraying. I worked in the nursery industry all my life and we used restricted chemicals. For my purposes these days, I would rate this a definite five star product.

I purchased the smaller sprayer bottle of this to get rid of a scale issue I had on two Sago pups. 3 - 4 days of morning spritzing took care of the issue. That was about a month and a half ago. I also sprayed one Elephant ear that was getting eaten in the night by something that I could never catch in the act. That elephant ear has been doing much better since that one-time spraying (and oddly enough, none of its neighbors ever got attacked). Aside from that, the bottle has been sitting in my stockpile of fertilizers and other 'chemicals', locked up and away from my kids. I don't mind some mild insect damage to my plants, keeps them natural looking, so I don't worry about spraying everything. Plus, I look at it like I look at most things: In moderation, almost anything can be good, but over-indulging tends to lead to problems.

Six years later and I'm still trying to make this exact, same bottle of stuff work. (I always get a laugh when I Google something and it leads me back to me, which is what happened today.) Using it on mealy bugs that are on the bloom tips of my Salvia Black & Blue. I keep going back to this stuff because I don't want to use anything stronger that might hurt the bees, which are all over the place!

I also have some scale starting on my Queen Sago (Cycas circinalis or rumphii, your preference). I've never had scale on her before and I want to get started on treating that right away. That is a special plant.

Carol

Is Houzz SELLING THIS PRODUCT OR NOT??!!! I JUST WANT TO PUT IT IN MY CART, BUT NOW???