Dish soap -
 

There must be something in Dish Detergent/Soap that works to kill insects.

Does anyone know what it is?

I think of dish detergent to be benign and/or non-toxic. But is it?

According to this atricle it's the detergent that messes with the insects body structure.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/dawn-di...den-88374.html

Just don't use Dawn dish soap around plants......it kills them by removing a protective coating on the leaves.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussi...-soap-for-bugs

We have ants all year long. I prefer a bit of soap with water in a spray bottle, so that if the cats walk through it. If they lick their feet, they are not getting poison.

Bear, what kind of insects are you trying to kill

I have found a spray bottle of Lysol kitchen disinfectant works GREAT to kill unwanted ants that seem to get in during the hot dry spells here - looking for water I presume. Just spritz them and they're toast!

We don't use Dawn on our plants. We do use it in combo with vinegar or ammonia on fire ant hills. Hubs said the other day I overkill but I stepped on a small ant hill as I was unloading groceries the other day and immediately got nailed. Had to drop everything, literally. Brushed them off and got into the car and turned it around. Yes the bites felt on fire. Ran into the house and immediately grabbed the alcohol to stop the stinging. When I finished I grabbed the Dawn and some ammonia. Sprayed the perimeter and worked my way in. It's been 2 weeks and I still have the bite festers to show for it. at least they don't itch. Thankful i'm not allergic to them.

Soap will coat the body and the insect will die from lack of oxygen. Bar soap in sudsy water will do the same.

Just the other day I had a wolf spider in the bathtub, didn't want to squish him in my tub, so I sprayed him with hairspray (which is like a thin varnish). Worked remarkably well.

When we lived in SC I used to dump the hot pine-sol water on my fire ant hills, after I washed the kitchen floor. Would circle the hill then hit them in the center and they didn't like it as the pine oil coated the body and killed them but our nests were deep they would move a few yards away. Eventually got them to move out of the yard to the gully behind the house.

An insect's nose is called a spiracle and is located along the sides, one hole on each side of each segment. They do not have workable lungs as we do, where we force air in and then expel it. The insects's method is called diffusing. The air just wanders in by itself, but then they don't need much. Since this is an inefficient method, bugs don't get very big. YES!!! But in the tropics where there is a higher concentration of oxygen, they do get bigger. Lots of plants give off lots of oxygen, it's their waste product. Plants need carbon dioxide to live, but insects are like us, consuming oxygen.

Any soap, such as Dawn is a surface tension breaker. If you break the surface tension over the spiracle, you cut off the bug's air supply. Trying to drown a bug in water often doesn't work, as the surface tension over the spiracle is in tact.

Marcia 1968 Entomology UCD