Aphids on my apple tree

[xanadu86]

Hi everyone,
I'm quite new to gardening so this is probably quite a basic question im asking.

We have a small apple tree that we only planted in the ground a couple of months ago - so it is growing a lot. It has loads of green aphids on the underside of almost every leaf though. I read somewhere that spraying very diluted washing up liquid on the leaves was a fruit-friendly way to get rid of them, however I sprayed them last night and the aphids are still at large.

How long would it take for them to suffocate? Should it be an immediate thing?

What else could we try - please bear in mind it needs to not affect the fruit growing and I don't want harmful sprays on there as im pregnant.

[Lesley Jay]

You could try blasting the aphids off with water using a hose pipe, squashing them with your fingers (if you can reach!) or I have read that they like yellow so fill a margarine container with soapy water and apparently they dive into that and drown! Insecticidal soaps are based on fatty acids which you can buy from the garden centres and it is also available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.

The Organic Gardening Catalogue

I have never tried using diluted washing up liquid but don't use the anti-bacterial as this can burn the leaves.