Donna, say what you want about the efficacy of soap as an insecticide but I don't always find it to be that affective in removing dirt either- but that's ok- my only important audience at the office is fruit trees, and if they mind my dirty fingernails they're smart enough to keep quiet (I'm the one with the pruning saw).
Seriously though, don't you sometimes find soap useful for controlling aphids and whitefly? Of course for aphids you have to keep the ants off the tree.
[NAFEX] Soap as insecticide,
Alan Haigh, 11/22/2007