Environmentally safe, broad spectrum insecticide

A readily biodegradeable, environmentally safe, storage stabilized, aqueous, insecticidal solution for application to decorative and crop plants, said solution being effective to control plant damage from a wide range of chewing and sucking insects, said composition consisting essentially of:

• an aqueous solution having a pH between about 7.5 and 8.8 and containing the following ingredients in the following relative parts by weight:
• A. between 30 and 50 parts of an aqueous solution comprising about 50 percent by weight of a mixture of monocarboxylic acids and the alkali metal salts thereof,
• said monocarboxylic acid mixture comprising at least 70 percent oleic acid and its alkali metal salts and at least 6 percent linoleic acid and its alkali metal salt;
• B. between 1.0 and 2.0 parts of a pyrethrum extract comprising about 20 percent by weight of a mixture of isecticidally active substances selected from the group consisting of pyrethrin I, pyrethrin II, cinerin I, cinerin II, jasmolin I and jasmolin II;
• C. between 3 and 20 parts of a solvent for said insecticidally active pyrethrum extract substances comprising a low molecular weight alcohol;
• and
• D. a trace amount of an antioxidant,
• said composition being effective on application to a plant at a dilution in water such that the applied solution contains at least about 0.5% by weight of said monocarboxylic acid mixture and at least 0.005% by weight of said mixture of said insecticidally active pyrethrum extract substances to provide protection against plant damage from infestation by insect species from the orders Homoptera, Coleoptera, Dermaptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera, and from crustacea species from the order Isopoda.