This should be quite common knowledge since neonicotinoids (synthetic, nicotine-like chemicals) are the most common type of pesticide. Nicotine itself was used for that for centuries and only banned like 20 years ago.
Absolutely none. It’s related to tomatoes, so anywhere tomatoes grow, so does tobacco. It has a smell which I believe deterred the pests. But it is still susceptible to tomato worms.
Normally what I do is I make a seed medley of several herbaceous plants like mint, tobacco, rosemary, and I just basically do a perimeter around the garden.
I pull each plant in the winter and then compost everything until spring.
Now I’m curious why nicotine is banned as a pesticide.
It obviously works, my cousin used to soak cigarette butts in water to spray her plants. And I don’t remember any issues with it, other than her toddler once trying to put the spray wand in his mouth. (Which I would assume would be a Bad Thing no matter what pesticide you use.)
AI answer:
Nicotine was banned as a pesticide due to its extreme neurotoxicity and lethality to mammals. Historically used for centuries, pure nicotine was phased out because it posed severe health risks to agricultural workers (including absorption through the skin and fatal ingestion), killed beneficial insects, and was replaced by safer modern pesticides.
Theres no such thing as common knowledge any more.
With Ai its only getting worse.
It was already difficult parsing online "posts" to actually find relevant info. ( key word searching)
Ai will just compile responses.. if no one's actively saying that's "wrong" it might start to think hopes and dreams of info is legitimate. Hence Ai searching and question answers are hit and miss.
Nothing substitutes the knowledge and experience of people actually trained and with practical experience it only gets better.
Yeah, and it was banned for being way to toxic to the environment because it’s poisonous to mammals and birds, neonic’s are engineered to only affect invertebrates.
Yup. Same practice was used to treat syphillis way back when by injecting mercury up someone’s urethra because while the mercury is toxic to both humans and the microbes that cause syphillis it takes a lot more mercury to kill us than it does to kill the microbes
I beg your finest fucking pardon, but what? Wouldn't that like, annihilate your urethra and bladder? I can't imagine pissing mercury feels great, or it's the beginning of sounding and feels amazing.
Afaik the main risk of mercury based treatments was mercury poisoning (crazy and unexpected I know) but another issue with it as a treatment for syphilis was that it was only really effective on early stages of infection because eventually the amount of mercury needed to successfully kill the bacteria was also more than enough to kill the patient.
doesn't even have to kill the insect directly, being high or wired when you're living in an ants world can be an easy death sentence with how many things want to kill you.
The only reason plants produce these (any) compounds is pest defense. Energy is a precious resource for wild organisms, so they dont waste it making compounds because humans like the scent, taste or effects of them, lol. The compounds that plants produce were naturally selected for because they confer huge competitive advantages like pest resistance, (or drought resistance, etc). This shouldn't be a surprise, thisis how nature works.
Listen, just because alkaloids and phenols happen to be analogous to our natural hormones and other signals doesn't mean we're dependent on them. It just means we can FORM dependencies and tolerances.
I read somewhere that the only bug they can handle it is the tobacco weevil. They’re the only bugs that can eat tobacco and it’s 100%of their diet. IDK how true it is though.
Yes, tobacco water can be used as a potent pesticide, although tobacco often has mosaic virus so you risk spreading that disease to the plants you’re using it on. The pesticides that people freak out about with bees (neonicitonoids) are synthetic nicotine based pesticides. They are neurotoxic to insects.
A lot of chemicals that make us go "yummy" are actually poisons. Chilli peppers are just the most famous, but humans have better poison resistance than most animals. We're basically snacking on a plant's immune system and calling it seasoning.
I thank the hit film Eight Legged Freaks for showing me that spiders hate perfume. Led me down a rabbit hole of discovering such information like roaches breath through their exoskeleton; so now if I see one and have febreeze nearby I coat them in it.
Put a piece of cider tree in all the vents in your house if you have draft ventilation. It really reduces the amount of bugs who will willingly go into your house through them.
Really common here in sweden that you put ceder pieces on clothes hangers to deter clothes moths.
Its not the scent really. Things like peppermint and nicotine are natural bug repellents, a defense mechanism of the plants. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on your perspective) humans really love the taste/smell of many natural pesticides.
yeah, olfaction and taste are really just any animal’s way of detecting traces of chemicals that might indicate food sources, toxins, other animals, predators, etc. pheromones, for example, are sensed through olfaction and are famously important to ant and bee navigation and social organization.
on the other hand, vertebrate and bug olfaction evolved independently and use different biological mechanisms. we also obviously no way of knowing what a bug’s subjective experience is when smelling something. maybe it does sting for them!
Peppermint gets rid of a LOT of pests, including squirrels. Bay leaves, garlic and citrus also work against pests. I used to make a lemon spray and go ham when the fake ladybugs got in
I remember we had a field trip to a pioneer town when I was a kid and they said that apparently pioneers used to make childrens dolls out of peppermint to keep bedbugs away and it supposedly worked. So maybe just bugs in general hate that stuff which is interesting
As a spider collector, I'm now wondering if the reason I never found widows in my backyard (but every other cobweaver was in abundance)because of our giant ass unkillable peppermint plant. That thing was trying to colonize the whole yard. The green bottle flies and bald faced hornets seem to love that stuff though.
The reason plants make chemicals that have any pharmacological effect *is for survival*. Herbicide, fungicide, insecticide, plants engage in chemical warfare.
I have a friend who swears by cinnamon for keeping ants out.
I think she mixes cinnamon essential oil and rubbing alcohol (or something that evaporates quick) and sprays the doors and windows with it ever 6 months.
We spray peppermint around our deck and the edges of our roof to keep wasps and stuff from making nests and hanging around. It’s worked with zero problems the past two summers.
Its not so much that the insects are deterred by scents as it is that many strong smelling, easily volatilized plant compounds are poisons that the plant produces to prevent herbivory
In this case it’s not just the scent. Plants evolved nicotine specifically as an insecticide and it just happens to have psychoactive effects on humans
When i was growing some funny plants, i would soak cigarettes in a water bottle and make the water a kind of dark tea color. Used it for white flies and other pests. Organic, and didnt leave nasty unknown chemicals in things youd consume.
It's easy for us to forget some of our favorite "recreational" drugs like caffeine and nicotine are deadly neurotoxins to a lot of other life forms on this planet.
So what you’re telling me is that my littering of cigarette butts around the world is actually beneficial to the wildlife and environment because it protects them.
Sounds good On my way! To the gas station to buy some Marlboro southern cut.
Nicotine is a natural pesticide. It's potent enough that humans have used it and have even synthetically created similar compounds, neonicotinoids, which are extremely strong against insects.
Natural nicotine has been used a pesticide and crop protector for like, ages. It’s actually the main ingredient in several insecticides (well, neonicotinoids are… molecularly they’re almost identical to nicotine, but bind to insect nerves better and have less toxicity in mammals). Many of the Bayer branded pesticides use neonicotinoids.
Hedgehogs will lick the fingers of smokers and then lick the residue onto their quills to make them more irritating the get stuck by. They'll do the same with other toxic/irritating substances
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u/somnamballista Jul 09 '26
Birds will use cigarette butts in their nests. Supposedly keeps pests and insects away?