Re: Nicotine as Insecticide

From: Marc I. Burack (mb.cfg@mindspring.com)
Date: Mon Mar 29 1999 - 05:17:45 PST


Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 08:17:45 -0500
From: "Marc I. Burack" <mb.cfg@mindspring.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1000$foo@default>
Subject: Re: Nicotine as Insecticide

At 11:35 PM 3/28/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Ive been told nicotine is a relatively safe insecticide for use on crop
>plants as far as the plants are concerned (a different story with people).
>So could I turn a packet of reds into a insecticide for aphids or whiteflys
>or perhaps even scale and fungus if my CP tank ever had an epidemic? Sean
>samia was also talking about some insecticide he made of tabasco sauce that
>worked on everything except pings which it killed quite nicely. I'd
>especially like to know of a homemade fungicide i could make because i
>bought some peat on the cheap which keeps putting out this fungus which
>makes patterns of 5 white dots in a circle.

Dear Chris,

Yes making a "tea" out of tobacco and spraying it on plants is a potent
natural insecticide. Although I do not know what it will do to Nepenthes
specifically.

Just for some trivia, believe it or not, tobacco is a member of the
"nightshade" family of plants, and actually if it is planted within 2-3
feet of other plants (in a garden for example) the other plants pick up the
nicotine from the soil.

The greatest example of this is if tobacco is planted near tomatoes in a
garden. Tomato's, also being members of the nightshade family, will become
totally saturated with nicotine, making them almost impervious to
pests.......although unfortunately it renders the actual tomato's
completely poisonous :-)

Marc I. Burack
marcb@companionfinancial.com



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