Are natural insecticides always safe?
nicotine (drawing from wikipedia) "A pesticide is a substance that disrupts or kills organisms that we consider to be pests , generally weeds, damaging insects, or microbes that cause disease. Natural pesticides are pesticides that are made by other organisms, usually for their own defense, or are derived from a natural source such as a mineral." from Natural Pesticides at LivingWithBugs.com By this definition nicotine is a natural insecticide . Nicotine is produced by plants in the nightshade family of which tobacco is one species. Tobacco farmers have long-known that an infusion of water and tobacco leaves makes a powerful, and highly toxic, insecticide. In fact nicotine was at one time available as a commercial insecticide product called Black Leaf 40. Imidacloprid (Merit) is a modern insecticide based on nicotine chemistry . Nicotine is a powerful neurotoxin (nerve toxin). At low doses it acts as a stimulant while at higher doses it causes uncontrolled convulsions and...