I feel your pain!
Me & my bottle (several now) of soap spray have been inseperable.
Very busy, buggy season it is turning out to be.
I found aphids on my mealy cup sage today. This is a plant that has NEVER been bothered by pests in the past. It is perennial here in my zone and I've had it in the same spot for 3 years -- grown from seed. The growing tips of several of the branches were literally covered in green aphids today. They'd done quite a bit of damage before I noticed them.
They got hit with a blast from the hose and tomorrow, if they're back, they'll be gettin' some soap with their water.
And I've got some type of suckering insect attacking my zinnia, evening primrose, and butterfly bush. I removed the distorted leaves and sprayed the rest with soap.

Nothing else to really do, I don't suppose.
I've been trying in ernest for the past couple of seasons to avoid using the heavy-duty chemicals. However, soap sprays aren't going to work on my ant infestations...this is honest-to-G*D the WORST year I've seen for ants. They are in every one of my beds and all over the rest of our property as well.

Ah, well....goes with the territory, I suppose.

RENEE

If your plants are being devoured by insect pests take a good, in depth look at your soil. What is the nutrient load? Is that balanced? What is the soils pH? How much organic matter is in that soil?

Renee, look in the garden centers for either Amdro ant bait or one of the ant baits with Spinosad in it. If you need to get rid of the fire ants in a veggie garden, you'll need to go with the Spinosad product. Several companies are making it.

Follow all of the directions for the best results!

So, if you don't have any money to spend, you do what you can with what you have :)

Hose those aphids off. If they are on stems too tender to blast with a jet of water, wipe them off with paper towels or your fingers...this is bug war and not for the squeamish.

If aphids have sucked the life out of your burning bush tips, snip those tips off. Slugs like my dwarf iris, you can take care of slugs with a spray of 1/3 household ammonia with 2/3 water and it won't hurt your plants (just don't spray it at high noon if it's 80o outside) Best to go at night with a flashlight and your spray bottle, spritz the solution right on the slugs - dead in a heartbeat...

In fact, you'll get a real eye opener about what's going on in your garden doing nighttime inspections. If you have weevils instead of slugs munching your iris, smash 'em, and never mind the crunch sound. Put your oldest pruners or cheap scissors in your pocket to snip those cutworms in half.

Some years are worse than others for insect damage, don't get discouraged. Put new batteries in your flashlight, warn your neighbors so you don't alarm them prowling around, and wear gloves - hand picking god-knows-what bugs and you will be more comfortable in gloves. :)

tried the soap solution with the burning bush to no noticible effect. cut some tips off, might have to do the rest. the nighttime check is a good idea, if I wasn't in pj's allready I'd do it now :P
soil, i admit is the real mystery to me. from what I've heard we generally have a rather basic soil around here, and it seems to be pretty rich on my property, nice mix of organic and sand, but I confess that that is more a subjective observation based on little experience rather than a studied report. It's why I've been working with trees and plants that say they flexible on soil quality. Toss some peat in there to lower ph and help retain moisture and crossing fingers.
Reading the insect chemical control posts in here and finding them very informative. :) Thanks all!

Simply going down to buy "something" to spray is going to compound your problem which is an unbalanced ecosystem. Start by looking closely at your soil and get that in to a good, healthy condition so the plants that grow are strong and healthy and can ward off insect pests more easily. Never, ever simply toss something onto your soil in the hope that will do something, have a good, reliable soil test done to see what needs to be done other than adding lots of organic matter. Dig in with these simple soil tests to get to know what you have, and these will also help guide in what to do:
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

awesome thanks. I'll try these tests out. Might have to wait on the drainage one though until after our week of thunder showers is finished though.
4 and 5 I allready know seem right on track though so that's good.

Ok, did the structure test and left with scratching my head. Could be in trouble. Guess I need more organic material after all :(

rhizo ~ thanks for the tip regarding Amdro & spinosad. I was already aware of Amdro as a good product to treat my fire ant problems but had never heard of spinosad. I treated all the fire ant beds I could find with Amdro a few days ago - will see if I can find any products containing spinosad this weekend for the other ants.

RENEE