Here’s an affective insecticide for all my organically-inclined readers. It comes courtesy of Professor Mapes:
New England Farmer and Boston Rambler
Boston, Saturday, April 5, 1851
Vol. VI, Number 14
TOBACCO DUST,
As a Protection against Insects.
We last year procured from a snuff mill a barrel of dry, but damaged snuff flour, and prepared drudging boxes, covered with a fine bolting cloth, with which we sifted it over the surfaces of any plants attacked by insects, and with most signal success. The snuff should be applied, if practicable, while the plant is wet with dew, and repeated after every shower. If the boxes are properly made, (like a common flour drudge) and the snuff is perfectly fine and dry, but little time is necessary to go over an acre of plants. Even the rose bug, cabbage louse, thrips on grape vines, &c., all yield to the influence of snuff, and the most delicate plant of the hot-house is not injured by its application. For field vegetables, caustic lime, made into a fine powder while dry, and applied before slaking by contact with the air, will produce similar results.
Prof. Mapes.
Tobacco-based insecticides have been around for hundreds of years, so it’s unlikely that Prof. Mapes’s readers of 1851 thought this was a miracle treatment. My suspicion is that he was providing a method of applying tobacco in a form that was readily available to the mid-nineteenth century farmer. He even noted that he used “damaged” snuff flour, which may have occasionally been available very cheaply in his day. Snuff is still available today, but it’s not half as popular as it was in the days of the Heirloom Orchardist. So, if you want to give a nicotine-based insecticide a try, and you can’t procure a “barrel of dry, but damaged snuff flour,” here’s an alternate recipe for you:
Nicotine Spray:
All you need is:
1 cup of tobacco
1 gallon of water
Combine the two, and allow the mixture to steep for approximately 24 hours. After it has stood for a day, you should find it to look like weak tea. Strain it, and apply the liquid with a watering can, or sprayer. This mixture is for use on foliage feeding insects, or those that may suck plant juices (such as aphids).
I’ve read reports that you shouldn’t use this solution on peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, or any other member of the solanaceous family. Apparently, tobacco chemicals can hurt these types of plants. This is ironic, because tobacco itself is from the Nightshade (Solanaceae) family.
Actually, tobacco insecticides are somewhat controversial amongst the organically inclined. This may be because most organic gardeners are very health conscious, and anything associated with tobacco is hard to accept. It may also be that nicotine-based insecticides are not specific. When you use them, you’ll be attacking both the harmful and helpful insects. Hmmm...it may be easier to simply use some of the earth friendly pest control products available at MasterGardening.com.
