Not sure what you mean by 'clearinghouse' but I found an email I sent to my local aggie in 2004 asking for help....promise NOT to laugh?
Below is a copy/paste...

Is the use of milk effective on Powdery Mildew? If so,
is it also safe for use on tomatoes? It seems to be so
much worse this year. First on the squash, then the
pumpkins and cucumbers, now the tomatoes. To the point
where it appears to be killing the plants. Help.

I'll share a story with you if you promise not to
laugh. Earlier I had used half & half (about 1:8 with
water) on my squash with what appeared to be moderate
success. It seemed that I had to spray them everyday
to have continued affect. So I increased the amount of
half & half used. This seemed to help. Then aphids
(never had a problem in past 4yrs) infested my
tomatoes spreading to the squash. I tried a garden
hose on the tomatoes to knock off the aphids. But this
seemed to beat the plants up pretty badly. Even with
only moderate force.

I remembered reading on the web about using dish-soap
spray to combat the aphids. So in my infinite wisdom I
decided to add some Dawn dish-soap to the half & half
mix and try it on the tomatoes for the aphids. I added
only a drop to the 16 oz. spray bottle I was using.
The next day I noticed the 2 beefsteaks I sprayed were
noticeably greener than the surrounding plants. I
remembered thinking I should try that on the other
plants and wondering why this had turned the leaves a
healthy shade of green. It didn't seem to have that
effect on the squash.

Well after 3-4 days the foliage began to turn
completely brown on the 2 beefsteaks. The plants
continue to support the fruit it has, however it
appears to have defoliated where ever I sprayed.
Meaning the top of the plant still has leaves however
the remainder of the plant is bare. It did NOT have
this effect in the squash. I don't understand why this
had such a devastating effect on the beefsteak but
virtually no effect on the squash. Can you tell me
where I went worng? (like Fonzy) Smile. OK you can
laugh now.

The Dawn dish-soap was/is the Potpourri Herbal Breeze
blend, if that matters. On the bottle it says that
"Dawn contains biodegradable anionic and nonionic
surfactants and 'NO Phosphate'." But I have NO idea
what the hey that means.

Was it the half and half? Was it the Dawn? What can I
do to curb this dreaded fungus? Any thoughts, ideas,
or suggestions would surely be appreciated.

I almost gave up gardening that year & have been afraid to use Dawn dish soap again.

Just my experience. I am glad I documented the fragrance that I used.

Just me, personally, in my garden, I have used some dawn dishwashing liquid mixed with water in a little hand held spray bottle to control aphids and ants on yard long beans growing on the fence, ants and aphids on my okra, some bugs yet to be identified on my black eyed peas and leaf footed stink bugs on my tomatoes. I did not measure the amount, just put a couple of quick little squirts of the liquid in a hand held spray bottle then filled it up with water, shook it up and sprayed.
It turned the aphids to mush and ran the ants off, it either killed or ran off the unidentified bugs that looked something similar to a large ant, and killed leaf footed stink bugs on my tomatoes. Not immediately, but after being drenched down they stager around some and fall off or die on the plant. I have not had to use any other insecticides, organic nor chemical in my garden this year.

None of the above has caused any noticeible dammage to any of my plants, however, I have not sprayed any more of the plant necessary to get it directly onto the insects, and did not spray during the heat of the day with the blazing sun out, just early and late.
That is my experience and observations, your mileage may vary.
Bill P.

I have a serious aphid infestation on my later planted sweet corn right now. Past years I would dust twice with 5% Sevin early on before tassling and would still have aphids but not to the point of yellowing bottom leaves, or all over the ears. But I used up the last of it last year and never bothered to get more this year.

So I went today looking for either insecticidal soap or summer oil. I was surprised what I found!

Safers Insecticidal Soap is not labelled for use on Sweet Corn. That may explain catholicokie's comment that soap didn't work well on corn and burned it.

No one had the horticultural oil that I really wanted either so its back to the Sevin dust.

This was actually discussed at length on several other threads about cucumber beetles, squash bugs, and aphids.

My experience is similar to Gonefishin; I sprayed only locally (where bugs were clustered together) and had few problems with leaf burn. Okra, however, seems very sensitive to soap spray. Some new leaves on squash & soybeans (where I sprayed for aphids) were stunted, but recovered.

Spraying corn for aphids is, in my opinion, unnecessary; while it is annoying to have them, aphids appear to have no effect on yield. In my area, aphids tend to be controlled by natural predators, if I allow them time to work. If aphids are severe, it is more effective to control the ants that spread them.

A plain soap solution was highly effective against squash bugs on my cucurbits. With the addition of a little sugar, it killed cucumber beetles as well... and virtually any other insect I tried it on.

Soap & water, rubbing alcohol, and mouthwash (I have tried several combinations) would not be advisable for spraying on plants, but is very effective against spiders, ants & wasps (it will drop wasps out of mid-air). A good alternative to poisonous household sprays, for those with children or pets... and it leaves the wall clean when wiped. :-)

When I use soap sprays, I go with Dr. Bronner's as it is the purest I know of. Many plants are sensitive to soaps so I use this infrequently. If you have the time, and your garden size allows, you can knock the bugs into a hand held qt. container of soapy (any kind) water. They will die and the leaves are not harmed. Aphids I just ignore or hit with hose water.

My father, who is approaching 90, has always been inclined to try new things. A few years ago, he put some unknown dishsoap in an unknown amount into his hose-end sprayer and went after the aphids in the plum tree. It dropped every leaf. The leaves regrew and a crop of (small) plums developed but this demonstration deterred his son (me) a few more years from trying dishsoap.

I use insecticidal soap from Safer and others each season on aphids in the vegetables. Altho' I use systemic sprays on the ornamentals, I overcame my anxiety this year and decided to try dishsoap on the sunflowers. Palmolive Green was what I was advised to use (2 T/gallon water) and it worked - without foliar damage.

I am not, however willing to risk too much of value. Altho' expensive, Safer works fine.

Catholicokie, you may wish to try hosing off the plants BEFORE spraying with an insecticide. This works fairly well with spider mites. It may be that many are shielded by the leaves until they are washed off. There's a fairly good chance that you are going to hit them with the spray once they are on the ground.

Since dehydration is likely to be the reason dishsoap is effective - you may be doing most of your bug killing with your hose instead of your sprayer. I don't really know and if rinsing the plants 10 minutes after spraying works for you, don't let me deter you.

Steve

Ok, here's what been happening in my humble garden. I've always had some aphids but have never been too aggresive about controling them, not wanting to use any chemicals or even soap. Mostly using water pressure to knock them down some. So it's been about three years now since I started my garden and just this year it looks like these parasitic wasps have discovered the aphids and are breeding and attacking them like crazy. Looks like nature, left to it's own design, is trying to seek a balance. Nature hates a vacuum or a monopoly. Seems like man is always wanting to do SOMETHING when often nothing is the correct way. Trust in nature, try to understand it's subtle nuance instead of trying to fight against it......Paul

You have never depended upon growing anything for a living, have you Paul? ":^)

I have not either, in a long time, but using your approach, some years there would not even be enough seed made for a crop next year.

I hear what you are saying, and in theory it sounds great, perhaps even poetic or romantic, but without minimal interference from me with the bit of soapy water on the ants and aphids, I probably would not have gathered squat in the way of okra, and that is just one little isolated example.

I really never have much liked sparrows, with their messy nests in gutters and other places with mites etc. But this year there have been many of them (a good year for the sparrows it seems) eating up the birdseed in the feeders and working all over the garden. After consideration and observations, I came to the conclusion that they were indeed helping to control some of the insect pest in the garden and probably helped me get by with just the soapy water instead of useing any pesticides of any kind in the garden. They have NOT had any impact that I can tell on the leaf footed stink bugs however. I think that they must not like the taste of them, consequently, there was a population explosion along with the very hot, dry weather.
Just my thoughts.
Bill P.

If you find that dishwasing detergent is too harsh for some plants, you may wish to try Baby Shampoo, Baby Wash, or Bubble Bath (none of these should have conditioner). These are formulated to be mild to skin, so they should be mild for plants.

I feel like I am spending my life fighting a losing battle with bugs in my garden. I have a major infestation of aphids, as well as a number of bugs i can't identify. I've been spraying with Safer brand insecticidal soap, which I've had minimal success with in the past, but I swear the bugs are thriving on it this year. They've already killed two of my okra plants, are working on a couple of others, and have moved on to the tomatoes and even the jalepenos! The bottle of soap says to spray again 2 or three days after the initial spraying and then every two weeks, but I've been having to spray every day! Does anyone know if this is safe? I admit that I have some malathion in my shed from a few years ago, before I had children and went organic, and I've been considering using it, since it did work and only had to be applied a few times. But, I have a lot of birds in my yard, as well as a child and a dog, so I'd like to stay organic if I can. So, my questions are whether anyone knows of a more effective method for controlling the bugs and whether spraying with insecticidal soap daily will harm my plants. I have tomatoes, okra, basil, cilantro, sweet and hot peppers, strawberries, and roses. I also have onions and garlic, but I haven't seen any bugs on them yet.

I have a small garden so I hand-pick the stink bugs. My real problem is with aphids. On sturdier plants like kale and garlic (my two problem veggies for aphids at the moment), I just blast them off with a hard jet spray from my garden hose. I just find it easier and more convenient. On my lettuces, I like the soapy spray from a squirt bottle because the water pressure is less and I don't end up with flattened lettuce covered in mud.

The trick (in my mind) really is to stay on top of the aphids. I try to squirt them off at least twice a week.

Each garden is different so results definitely vary!

Has anyone with an aphid infestation ever released a box of ladybugs in the garden?

I know several of the hydroponics stores around here carry boxes of ladybugs because the marijuana growers like them (whatever it takes, right?) but if you release them in your garden, won't they fly away once the aphids are gone?

Will enough of them stick around for the season to keep the aphids from building up again?

Hi guys. Good thread. I remember an experience similar to the one related by Gumby, where I had a couple of full-grown Big Boy plants "go brown and go down" after a spraying with dish soap solution containing garlic. I had sprayed in the heat of the day (mistake apparently) and had used something like Dawn, but I can't remember exactly. Anyway, it really almost killed those plants and they never recovered fully - they looked as awful as I felt the next day. I think now that you have to choose a SOAP and not a DETERGENT. Dawn is a grease attacker, and therefore a detergent preparation. Something like Ivory liquid is a true soap, which is not as harsh. Before there was dish DETERGENT, everyone used dish SOAP, and these recipes for bug killing got handed down in a basic way that ignores detergents now being the standard. That is my guess.

Never used the half-n-half, Gumby. Not because it's a bad idea, but then there wouldn't be anything for my coffee. And that would be bad.

I too have used Safer with good success. It sure does keep the flea beetles off my eggplant. Does NOTHING for cucumber beetles. Absolutely NOTHING. I think it might be helping me with cabbage moths, though.

Leaf-footed stink bugs, Bill? Sheesh, the stuff you have down there in Texas. My word.

To answer hamiltongardner's question, my neighor released a bunch of ladybugs and I have seen several around my garden. But they never seem to be able to keep the aphid population down enough.....I always end up resorting to my other tactics to rid them......

Ladybugs are a welcome sign, but I just think they need reinforcements (in my garden anyhoo).

Hi everyone. Excellent thread. I seem to have built my garden on top of an ant colony! Its really fascinating to see the relationship between the ants and aphids. Having said that, I want them both dead! Aphids especially! They destroyed my climbing roses last year and weakened most of my tomato plants.
raisemybeds makes a very interesting point about detergents versus pure soaps. The only method I've tried has been the hose...it knocks off the aphids as well as the rose pedals!
I've always been leary of using sevin, afraid that it'll kill the beneficials as well. And, I've never used soaps as I was concerned that the build up on the leaves would smother them.
This year I have to do something. Does Safer leave a build up? I'd appreciate any tips on eliminating the ants as well.
Thanks. J.

I like my coffee just like I like my women....

dark & bitter, ha

no, no no that's my beer, my beer.

Folks, don't right letter, it's sposed to be a joke, ha

But anyway I drink my coffee black cuz I'm sweet enuff....dont ya think?

No half & half that's why I had extra. Go to Dunkin ask for cream on the side, they'll give ya a cup. Using milk I had to put on everyday, so I kept bumping it up a notch. It works for the powdery mildew. But I had to do it everyday. Me thinks that baking soda works better for that (PM).

I use soapy sprays in my garden all the time. I use Dr. Bronner's or Ivory (make sure it's the soap version and not the detergent). Detergents will often damage the plants.

I also add a bit of mineral or vegetable oil to help the soap stick.

My recipe is for 1 teaspoon each per quart of water, and spray only in the morning or early evening, and I've never had damage from it.

I add soap and mineral oil to my homemade garlic and pepper sprays, too, to help them stick to the plants better. Seems to work.

It's worked well on aphids, chewing insects and marginally well on flea beetles (I might try Safer this year for my poor eggplants).

Didn't work on my blister beetle infestation, though. I'm told hand-picking is the only thing for them, but I'm open to suggestions! THose are nasty critters that can defoliate a plant in a hurry.

Leigh

My wife mixes a little grapefruit-scented Ajax dish soap (like 1 or 2 tbs) with a similar amount cooking oil in 1 gal. water. Need to agitate as you spray, but it works great on aphids (and even earwigs, which we get a lot of) until about 85 degrees or so, it smells awesome, and the leaves are left shiny. Have never had a problem with burning on ornamentals, and the oil keeps it working for a few days.

After it gets too hot, we switch to malathion. Also works great (in all temps), but smells awful.

> I've been spraying with Safer brand insecticidal soap, which I've had minimal success with in the past...

Maybe you have hard water?

You may use Baby Shampoo, Baby Bath, or Bubble Bath. These are actually more gentle to humans (and therefore plants) than "natural soaps" (such as ivory) and formulated to be resistant to hard water. Not all Detergent formulations are evil.

But if you are in the "Saop - Good...Detergent - Evil" crowd and you have hard water, you could buy a few gallons of deionized water.

In my early years of gardening I read that marigolds discourage aphids and so, having serious aphid problems every year I planted a couple of marigolds inside the garden. The marigolds took off and began to crowd out everything else, creating a monstrous situation. After many, many more years of losing the war against aphids I tried something else. I planted dwarf marigolds in one-gallon containers and spread them around the garden, moving them as I saw fit. So help me folks: I HAVEN'T SEEN MORE THAN A FEW RANDOM APHIDS AROUND MY GARDEN IN THE PAST 4 YEARS. This very day, I'm picking lettuce for the past 2 weeks, and I have not seen a single aphid. IT WORKS!!!!

"ligardener", I thought that your marigold report has such potential importance that I created a new thread for it.

Here is a link that might be useful: New Marigold Aphid Thread

Dawn dish soap ingredients: sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium pareth-23, sulfate C-12-14-16, dimethyl amine oxide, SD alcohol, undeceth-9, propylene glycol, cyclohexandiamine, polyacetate, protease, fragrance, FD&C blue, no phosphate

Our garden is swarmed with earwigs every year. The first few years we went out every night and sprayed the infested plants with a dish detergent solution (teaspoon detergent to a litre/quart of water or so). Until it occured to me we were, in effect, drenching our soil in chemicals. We started setting traps instead, emptying them every morning into a bucket with soapy water (real, biodegradable, natural ingredient soap like dr. Bronners or Nature clean) and dumping the bucket in the shrubs. Every year since, the earwig population has decreased. There are still a lot but not enough to cause a panic.

Several years ago, in New Mexico my mother made a mixture of shavings of Dial soap, water, and mashed garlic cloves. She said the dial broke down the bugs shell and the garlic killed them.... or was it the other way around? Anyway, It worked great on squash bugs they were dead dead dead.

There's been a lot of buzz about banana skins keeping aphids away [Google it], might be worth a try. Threw in another cool link.

Washing formulations change. We tried an experiment to kill some crabgrass in the driveway, way back, in the olden days, by throwing a bucket of leftover floor suds on it. Spic'n Span, in those days, turned out to be TSP [ tri sodium phosphate] in an orange box. LOL! Fertilizer !
Dish formulations are changing, most of them are too harsh on fine fabrics now, though i can still use palmolive green liquid. Using some in the oven, was a disaster, it wouldn't all come off, and it scorched, with a dangerous smell.
I used years ago, in a spray bottle: ~2 Tbs oil [light, veggie], a small squirt of dishsoap to make it stick, & maybe a little alcohol or vinegar, some garlic or hot pepper...
Some aromatics and herbs work as a repellent, so, he he, well, why not just use dirty dishwater? he he, It's a silly notion, that i like my plants too much, to ever try. There's always other stuff, that would make a gummy mess. Besides, it would hurt their feelings. :]
Baby shampoo, sounds good.
Do they even still sell soap? I couldn't find any anymore, at the S&S. Ivory Snow is now a detergent. Did they have to take it off the market, because there might be a bad cow in the tallow? Who knows.
Murphy's Oil Soap is good on scale, and a lot of other pests. Cycle it , with the Safer's, 2 uses of one, then, 2 of the other,
The Lemon oil-furniture oil, might have a bigger kick, than cooking oil, in soap / oil combos. Some bugs can't take lemon or pine scent.
What about the cheap pine oil cleaners? The store brands have 18%. That might be hard on plants, but heck on bugs, if some one gets daring enough, don't use more than a teaspoon per gallon, and use it late in the day.
Great thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Banana skins, aphids, and odd stuff