GOOD antibacterial soap only takes about 20 seconds to kill bacteria, but most people don't wash their hands for that long either. Antibacterial soaps are usually diluted enough not to kill large numbers of bacteria unless you are using them all the time or are in a setting such as healthcare, where hand-washing is performed hundreds of times daily. Septic bacteria can be replaced by periodically using Rid-X, Amway Septic Aid, or another of the numerous "Probiotics" designed for that purpose. I wouldn't recommend using antibacterials all the time unless you are in a "sensitive" environment, such as healthcare or commercial food preparation. They are convenient, though not necessary, to use when coming into the house after handling livestock or doing farm chores. As far as homemade dish soap goes, you can find recipes on the "net" for making your own using a liquid fat (like coconut oil) instead of solid fat (like lard or tallow)in the saponification process, or you can mix liquid and solid fat for a different texture. I even have a friend who has developed a process for making "soap" without hydroxide, but she has been ripped off before with people taking her processes and commercializing them without her permission, so she says her special soap-making process will die with her. Borax is NOT considered safe for dishwashing due to high Boron content and washing soda would be really hard on the skin. Develop your own soap, use commerecial products, or soak a plain bar soap in a moderate amount of water to "liquify" it. Good luck in your search, Cheryl. Thanks for bringing up the subject. Don

YES. EVERYWHERE. I garden in a community garden in Denver and I *literally* just discovered them. All of the tomatoes in the garden (about 30 to 40 plots) have been doing terribly all summer. Everyone has been perplexed, and we all wrote off the year as an inexplicably bad season. But then I stumbled upon an article, checked plants around the garden, and realized the psyllids are to blame. If only we had figured this out sooner!! Next year. Next year I'll be on top of this, for sure.

Sounds like scale build-up. You can buy scale remover or use vinegar. You could use the same idea of soaking a towel in the scale remover or vinegar and leave it over night. I would use some old rag that you can just throw away and probably cotton would be best if you choose to use that scale remover which is kind of strong. Vinegar will probably not harm a cloth. This may take a few times to get it all. But if it's hard and sharp that would most likely be scale from your water. We have scale in our water and vinegar gets it off. It can also build up on the shower head and cause the water to not come out very good, you can put vinegar in a baggie and put it on the shower head and use some tape to hold it there over night. It will be clean in the morning!

Just like any other scummy dish: wash it with soap and water and a soft brush.