Perhaps you don’t have an aphid issue, but we do.  On several of the fruit trees.  And bugs creep me out.  Masses of bugs creep me out even more.  I’ll spare you the pictures, but if you want to be sufficiently grossed out, Google ‘aphids on leaves’ to get an idea of what we were dealing with.

After a little searching for a natural, home-made spray, we found something that works.

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 teaspoons dish soap

Mix everything together and spray on the affected tree or plant every few days until you’re aphid free.

Basically, the oil in the mix suffocates the aphids.  Apparently, aphids don’t go back to the same tree once they’ve left.

Another option is a garlic oil spray:

3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 pint of water

1 teaspoon liquid dish soap

To make, combine the garlic cloves and vegetable oil.  Let this mixture sit for 24 hours.  After, strain out the garlic pieces.  Then, add the liquid to one pint of water and dish soap.  This is a concentrated batch, so dilute two tablespoons of garlic oil with another pint of water before spraying on your tree.  Test this out in a small area before going crazy, though.  If the leaves turn yellow, dilute the mixture with more water until you’ve determined it is safe for your plant.