Why is nicotine not used more often against pests?

[H. Wurst]

Hello dear growers of icmag,

I informed myself about nicotine against pests and it seems that it works systemic (?). If that is the case than it would make a great easy affordable and quite harmless pesticide. Harmless because you do not need to spray a systemic pesticide and so the risk of getting in touch with too much nicotine is very low.

So why is it not used more often? I could hardly find any info on these forums about this topic.

Any ideas?

 

[H. Wurst]

Is there any harm that nicotine can do to the plants? Or is it just not as effective as other pesticides?

Smokers in Europe smoke their buds with tobacco all the time. It will surely not be that bad if nicotine remains in the bud. Better than mites etc. i believe.

Or maybe i am too stupid to do the search right and anyone here can direct me to a thread that will help me answer my questions?

 

[Ganico]

I don't know, all I know is tobacco smoke is horrible for them. And before you go making nicotine extracts, they say a few drops of pure nicotine can kill you just by touching your skin.

 

[Guest]

Nicotine works. I once made my own pesticide by soaking a pack of smokes in water for 24 hours. Then I mixed in some ground ultra hot chili, some soap and a little bit of cooking oil.

I sprayed it on gnats buzzing around my plants... Boom! the suckers were dead before they hit the ground

I wouldn't go spraying that stuff straight on the plants though. Although pyretrine is expensive it's harmless to plants and also biodegredable so it's the way to go.

Peace

 

[Don John]

as iam a biological farmer here in europe

the EU has forbidden the use of Nicotine as a pesticide ...we even have to use special filter's now ..to remove Lead , Asbestos , Copper from the water ...before spraying our crops

 

[Gantz]

nicotine can kill. not just gnats...

 

[Don John]

nicotine is a poison ...we cant even refer it as a pesticide
a plant has a very hard time to break down nicotine

 

[jaykush]

you have to use tobacco leaves and soak them in water, dilute and use as a foliar spray for this to work. and H. Wurst people are using this, check the organic soil forum.

 

[inflorescence]

There are pesticides registered for ornamentals that are like nicotine derivitives that affect nicotine receptors and the concentrations of these products are RIDICULOUSLY small.
A lot of people don't realize that nicotine is one of the most potent chems around.
When you smoke a cig you're getting like a few percent nicotine with each inhale. If you were to inhale in like 50 percent nicotine it would quickly overwhelm your neurons.

This is why nicotine is not used that much, becuase it is just too difficult to accurately dose out an amount that wil kill insects but won't kill you at the same time.

 

[H. Wurst]

Thank you for all the answers and the PM i got.

I see different opinions here, but it seems that Nicotine is considered not the best choice because it is potentially dangerous to the human body.

I see the point, but smokers in Europe smoke their bongs with tobacco until the water is pitch black (some do, not everyone, but i used to be one of them). And i have never heard of any incident with bongwater, although it touched my skin quite regularly. Maybe nicotine does not get dissolved in the bongwater, but i have a problem to believe this.

Meanwhile i found another thread in a gardeners forum. The author said that two cigarettes on a liter of water were enough to solve his insect problem. I seriously doubt that two cigarettes will cause any health problems, even when you bath in the solution.

I will not start quoting what others on this forum are using against pests, but i have seen some strong chemicals here that i would stay away from as far as possible. And you need to spray those chemicals. That is why i believe that nicotine might be a good choice, because if it is systemic (nobody answered that yet) than you just give it over the roots. The chance of getting poisened from watering the plants is as high as burning yourself when the pot with your meal falls from the oven.

Someone said "nicotine is a poison". Nothing is pure poison. The dose makes a poison. And why is there a problem with the plant breaking down nicotine? I used to smoke, nicotine isnt that bad at all. You can survive a cigarette. Why should i be worried about nicotine that gets stuck in my hemp flowers? I could sell it to some Europeans, they would buy it, no problem (just kidding).

I will now go check out the organic forum, thanks for the info.

 

[Verite]

Nicotine is water soluable and on days it rains in harvest season they admit anywhere from 20-30 people a day to the hospital with GTS [ green tobbacco sickness ] in tobbacco growing regions of the US. GTS occurs when too much nicotine is absorbed into the skin. Stats show over 40% of all harvesters suffer one bout of GTS a season.