experience with insecticidal soap?

We have 2 beautiful tall ficus trees in the house. I noticed recently that the ground under them was sticky, I thought it was just sap, but now I see that the leaves are sticky too. Really quite gross... Reading up on them I see that various scale or mite bugs can cause this as they suck the plants juicy goodness.

Well I have to save the plants! But I can't take them outside for a good spraying as it's really too cold to leave them out there overnight. So I thought to use some insecticidal soap and spray them indoors as it's not very toxic to people or animals and I have both in here /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif But you have to actually wet the entire plant at once as it only kills the buggers when they are wet, not like big killer that will get them later when they walk through it after it dries. I'm going to have to put down a tarp in the middle of the room and saturate them!

Does anybody have any experience with this stuff? Just how toxic is it likely to be? Any brands or other recommendations?

The people are here know a lot more than flashlights /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif So I expect somebody out there has some knowledge about the stuff!

Thanks guys,

Another idea to keep any bugs/slugs away is beer. Take a little container of beer and place it near the plant. The creatures will be attracted to the beer and drown. ( Alcohol has a profound affect on Insects and other animals!)

-tom