Smashing results with anything that uses Castile style soap.

We use Dr. Bronners for a lot of things around the house, like our bodies, prefer the peppermint, and then if you use it as a spray, the dead aphids smell *fresh*.

Dave, who just sprayed a cherry tree full of aphids, and an artichoke full of aphids, with a mix of 1 tablespoon Bronners Pepperment with a 1 gallon sprayer.

Here is a link that might be useful: good stuff

I'm gonna google it, but whats Castile soap.

Insecticidal soaps can be one effective insect pest control if real soaps, those made with fats, are used and not detergents. Some few soaps still have fats reacted with lye and these disolve the target insects exoskeleton so they dehydrate. Castile soaps are made from vegetable fats not animal fats.
All you need is about 1 percent soap in solution, more is no more effective and may harm the plants, and that works to about 1 teaspoon of the soap mixed into 1 quart water. Nothing more is necessary and certainly not alcohol.
The single best control for aphids is a sharp water spray to knock the wee buggers off the plant.

I've got some version of aphid that cause the whole end of the growing branch to curl up in a sticky, bug-infested nob, that will grow to the size of a fist by the end of the summer. Hits the cherry trees, sometimes plum and ash. So right now, an egg sized nob at the end of each branch. On top of that, I don't have any meaningful water pressure.

But a 1 gal spray can with a tablespoon of Dr. Bronners soap gets 'em. It doesn't bother the plant at all. And, with the excess, I wash off my toes.

David, you could use that samr 1 gallon sprayer with nothing but water in to knock the wee buggers off, that sharp spray of water. Really high pressure from a hose is not what is needed, just enough to knock them off the plant.