Homemade Insect Spray

Jill sent me her recipe for an insecticidal spray. She says it's good for soft bodied insects like aphids, mealy bugs, whitefly, scale. She got the recipe from another gardener here in Hawaii. I've tried it and it works. But as with any spray containing oil, use it on the early morning or late afternoon when the strong sun isn't on the leaves, otherwise it will burn the leaves some. I take care to spray both top and bottoms of the leaves. Using it once, possibly twice, a week seems to do a good job during a bug outbreak. 

So here it goes.....

1 tablespoon liquid dish soap, like Dawn

1 cup cooking oil, like peanut, corn, soybean, etc

Mix the soap and oil in a glass jar. Shake. Now you can store this. Shake it well before measuring it out to use when making the spray. When you want to make a spray, mix 1-2 teaspoons of the soap/oil and mix with one cup of water. Or if you are making a gallon of spray, then mix 1/2 to 2/3 cup of soap/oil with 1 gallon of water. Stir it well before spraying.