AI, thank you for the advice. A couple of times I used insecticide from Bayer it was too strong for my chili plants. Since then I started to use many different homemade recipes, such as dishwasher liquid, Olive oil with dishwasher liquid and Castile liquid soap. Neem oil with dish washer liquid got good result. However still I have been trying to find out the best and easiest way to control aphids. The Neem oil I use is cold-pressed (the sellers claimed), I have suspicion of the quality of the Neem oil I used, even the same source Neem oil the quality are different. The first bottle I used had very strong garlic like smell and very effective. The second batch bottles I bought were not having much strong smell and less effective. Some of our members recommended to use Castile soap, thatâÂÂs I tried. The source of pure Castile soap I have is only eBay and Amazon, thatâÂÂs also I am not sure they are pure Castile soap. To get pure Castile soap I made it :) Making Castile soap is also easy, I have all the ingredients and tools at home so just I tried it. The plants I sprayed my homemade Castile soap are not yet get any negative effects. I never knew to use of rubbing alcohol for plants, I am very interested about it. I will try it, we have different types of rubbing alcohol the one I found in the supermarkets are 93% alcohol (ethanol) and another one is also 93% alcohol (denatured). I will try the first one. Bruce, I also cooked the lye with oil to neutralize the lye. Some people also made soap without cooking but it'd takes more time to neutralize the lye, source Internet :). To check the neutralization of lye phenolphthalein also use but I did not use it. Mecdave, many people recommended to use pure soap for aphids, just I mentioned before, thatâÂÂs one of the reasons I made Castile soap too. I also tried forceful water spray but it ruined the tender foliage and flowers. I am very interested AlâÂÂs tips of using rubbing alcohol. It could be one of the best, cheapest and easiest way to control aphids. Thank you everyone for the posts and tips. Veto

I recently bought the cascade complete packets and like them so far, I too have a high end Kenmore with stainless steel that I am not fond of at all, I had a KitchenAid which looked very similar to this Kenmore at my other house and it worked beautifully. I have been very disappointed in this Kenmore. I truly have to fill up a sink of hot soapy water and hand wash everything before it goes in the dishwasher and with my hands that is extremely difficult and painful. the cascade complete have the blue and green liquid along with the white powder, this is how they are described on the website. (I had big hope since they say it takes off 24 hr old mess) "Cascade Complete All-in-1 ActionPacs� combines the best of powder and gel in one powerful pac to conquer tough food cleaning and greasy messes. It pre-treats, fights stains, and rinses away tough food particles; all while fighting through layers of residue and leaving nothing behind but shine.It powers away 24-hour, stuck-on food so you don�t have to. " Cascade Complete All-in-1

bumblebeez - Doing laundry is a lot like cooking and baking. There are a lot of "rules" and a lot of "science", then there's what everyone actually DOES! From habit, experience, science, or without a clue - we all seem to do things a little differently when it comes to laundry. If I say you MUST use hot or warm water with homemade laundry soap mixtures, there will be 10 people chime in to say they only use cold water with it; so you'll have to work this out for yourself, according to YOUR results. Hot water has always been suggested for removing dirt from heavily soiled items, until we decided to "save the planet" by only using cold water. Cold water washing works best with detergents designed to be used in cold water - Gain may be and that could account for your satisifaction with the product. If you want a good test to see how well your detergent has been performing in cold water, wash a load of towels with nothing added to the washer but hot or warm water and see if there are a lot of suds. I'd also say it will take 2- to 3-months of continual use of homemade laundry soap to see if your whites are dingy from hard water soap scum. It will take several weeks to rid your laundry of the accumulation from the Gain. I got my best results using the hottest water I could for the fabric types being laundered. Hard water requires more soap or detergent, as a general rule, so you may have to alter the amount of homemade laundry soap you use depending on the hardness of your water. Whites may turn gray if there isn't enough soap (or detergent) used, or if clothes are not thoroughly rinsed. To get clothes white again, this is a procedured to follow from a Cooperative Extension Service laundry guide sheet: *Wash the clothes again in HOT water. *Add enough water softener to make the water feel slippery. *If the water becomes sudsy, the clothes were not rinsed enough. Wash them again adding only water softener. *If the clothes do not whiten, add soap or detergent and rewash. I've also used Cascade Dishwasher Detergent in hot water and a good soaking to remove the dingy gray hard water mineral deposits from white clothes washed in homemade laundry soap. If you've always used cold water, I was wondering why you want to add Oxi-Clean to the mixture? Oxi-Clean works best in warm to hot water, not cold. So once again, that's wasted money in your homemade mixture. Most people who use homemade laundry soap mixtures don't recognize the principal difference between a soap and a detergent - which is primarily the behaviour in hard water. Soaps tend to get together with the metal ions in hard water forming a scum, while detergents do not. As chris8769 pointed out, soaps are not suitable for use in acidic conditions, and there is all kinds of molecular information on the subject when you study soaps VS detergents. When you switch from a detergent (Gain in your case) to a soap-based mixture, you find the mixtures lack enzymes to attack stains, builders to soften water and assist surfactants, optical brighteners to make clothes look whiter, and a long list of other things. Good luck in your trials with homemade laundry soap. It may suit your laundry needs, and budget, perfectly. If not, you can always go back to detergents. Here's a new combination I read recently: 1 T. Simple Green and 1 scoop washing soda (sorry, they didn't say how large a "scoop"). We're all getting creative trying to save a dollar these days. -Grainlady

Fish, yes they held together, but whether they still have cleaning power is yet to be seen lol. I imagine if the enzymes died that they will still clean non stained, non tragic loads. Thank you for the suggestion on using liquid detergent as a sort of glue, it worked well. And I'm thinking had I used water once it dried it may have sll crumbled. Jean, your gonna make them? So cool, sometimes I just have to do a little experiment, others watch TV to relax, I never watch TV, ever so I find little things that I enjoy to relax.lol. if you decide to make some, have fun lol. OnegoodthingbySandythescientist!!!