Photo courtesy of "M" Pearl at Flickr.com.

If the aphids on your trees and garden plants don’t respond to the old “spray ‘em off with the water hose” method, give them a little homemade lemonade. Like ants, their occasional herders, aphids abhor citric acid, which is a key ingredient in the makeup of lemons, oranges, grapefruits, and other citric fruit.

Lemon peel is especially strong, so grate a teaspoon of it and steep it in a pint of hot water overnight. Then strain it through a coffee filter or cheesecloth, add three drops of insecticidal soap (to make it stick), and put into a spray bottle. The mixture may end up smelling pleasant to you as you spray it on your plants, but it’ll send those bugs packing in no time.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 5:05 am and is filed under Gardening Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.