Nicotine as a bug killer

[debb]

can this be used on flowers and plants? i do know it kills ticks...

 

[kanadiankat]

Sorry to drag this thread up from the dead, but it came to mind while I was trying to weed my vegetable garden/strawberry patch yesterday and discovered I that they have been infested with ants. I do have a bunch of old juice that I could use, or the method of soaking old analog butts in water to spray on the ants, but I was just curious about whether or not this effects the plants at all. The ants are eating up all of my strawberries and are all over the leaves, so would it kill the plants to spray them or their roots? Also I have 2 small kids to worry about, so obviously I wouldn't spray the strawberries that we will eat incase the nicotine gets absorbed, but would there be any chance of the roots/leaves of the plants absorbing the nicotine? I am not really sure what to do about it, I hate the idea of using toxic chemicals from pesticides, but I don't want to do any harm to my kids by using nicotine. Any advice appreciated, maybe an alternate method?

Nicotine, according to the pesticide sites, degrades quickly and naturally, so it has no long term effects. It is one of the few pesticides that can be used in organic crops. It's usually applied in a mix of 40% - diluted to 10% with water.

That said - if you use eliquid or any other form of nicotine, it's best to spray at night when your pets and children are not near the plants. Particularly your pets (though children have been known to eat garden plants).

(and there are people right now crying because of this post - I'm sure - as they drop their last drop of liquid into their atomizer and wish canada post would get back to work...).