Tobacco a natural pesticide

Tobacco as we know is a natural pesticide it works very well or extremely well against aphids,slugs,snails,caterpillars and many types of worms, placing half a cup of tobacco leaf in a 2pints of hot water and add a little bio-degradable dish soap allowing it to turn into a dark tea for about 2 hours then making it up to a gallon will deter most pests, Tobacco tea as a natural pesticide, Note: it is not good for any member of the nightshade family, eg peppers,tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes or tobacco its self, i am not really sure why it is not compatible with its own family but i have noticed that if a tobacco leaf gets damaged and the sap drops on a leaf below it will dissolve the leaf, but i have used it with great success on other plants in fact my fruit trees have been pest free the last 3 years.

 

Nicotine which is the chemical involved here is extremely poisonous to all forms of life and as a pesticide it kills ALL insects including Bees.
Do not use this method of pest control.

 

probably bee free as well , not the best thing to use on fruit trees if you need to please wait to apply after they have finished flowering.


Spruce

 

Just in case the EU bureaucrats are reading, I should point out that any endorsement of non-approved pesticides are the personal opinion of the poster, and should not be seen as an endorsement from Gardeners Corner, its staff, or the collective membership

 

hi folks and thank you for your comments i have only ever used this home made tea in the evenings and when there are no flowers on the plants i was unaware that it was harmful to bees in such a way and was of the opinion that using natural would be better but after reading up on the subject bow to your understanding of this subject and will not be using it again.

 

Pure Nicotine is so deadly that one drop on the skin of your hand will kill you. Good one for the murderous types as it is generally untraceable in post mortem. See Agatha Christie novels. Not that I am advocating murder or even trying to distil the stuff.
I am sure we had a big discussion about the use of cigarette ends to make insecticide a long time ago, either on here or on the old BBC site.

 

There's also the risk of spreading Tobacco mosaic virus. Some growers don't let smokers near their plants unless they're wearing gloves.

 

A quite interesting article regarding neonicotinoids here >

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21277933