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Nicotine
Nicotine is a powerful alkaloid insecticide and was available to
amateur gardeners fifty or so years ago. However it is also very poisonous to humans as well as being addictive, and is now only available to commercial growers (AIUI). Even they have to adopt stringent safety precautions when using it. Tobacco leaves typically contain about 5% nicotine. Someone on a recent thread (I think it was one on red spider mite) mentioned almost jokingly that they'd heard you could make an insecticide by soaking old cigarette butts in water. Is there an old-established recipe for doing this (so many ounces of tobacco per gallon, soaked overnight, or whatever) that gives a nicotine solution of sufficient concentration to be insecticidal but harmless to us mortals? Is there a harmless concentration? After all, smokers happily puff their way through umpteen cigarettes a day, and whatever long-term illness they die from, acute nicotine poisoning isn't it. -- Chris E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net |
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