Homemade Insecticidal Soap

In this day and age of chemical dependency in gardening, I don't think it's a bad idea to do whatever you can naturally before bringing out any chemicals.

So why not brew up your own insecticidal soap? It's really easy to do.

You'll need:

• 1 gallon water
• 1/4 cup liquid detergent
• A few tablespoons vegetable oil

Using a plastic spray bottle, thoroughly spray your plants. Be liberal with this homemade concoction, making sure that you saturate both the upper and lower parts of each leaf, as well as stems.

When using insecticidal soap, you're not killing off the adults of any particular insect, you're just washing them down to the ground. The whole trick here is to wash off the eggs and larvae they leave behind.