General Insect Management 733
the Western World during the 17th—19th Centuries but not always as an insecticide (i.e., rotenone)
(see below). The discovery of these botanical insecticides apparently was promoted by an agricultural
revolution during 1750–1880 that began in Europe and spread to North America and was due (in part)
to various innovations in agricultural practices. Crop production became more extensive and pest out-
breaks more severe (Flint and van den Bosch 1981). Finally, the propagation of insect resistant culti-
vars first was documented in the United States in the late 1700s and early 1800s, including wheat
(Triticum aestivum L.) resistant to the Hessian fly [Mayetiola destructor (Say)] in 1792 and apple
(Malus domestica Borkhausen) resistant to the wooly apple aphid [Eriosoma lanigerum ( Hausma n n)]
in 1831 (Smith 2005).
Nicotine apparently was the first of the three botanicals noted above to be used as an insecticide
in the Western World and is reported to have been introduced in the 1600s (Isman 2006, Singh 2012,
Pedigo and Rice 2015). It is extracted from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) and related species within
the Solanaceae (Isman 2006, Pedigo and Rice 2015). It was used in the late 1600s in France as a wash
applied to pear (Pyrus communis L.) trees to control lace bugs (McIndoo 1943) and in the 1760s as an
extract from tobacco leaves that was sprayed on vegetation, as “tobacco water and tobacco powder”
against plant lice (McIndoo 1943), and as crushed tobacco leaves for control of aphids (Singh 2012).
From 1763 into the 1890s, tobacco smoke was used indoors (greenhouses) and outdoors (under
tents and hoods placed over trees) to kill aphids (McIndoo 1943). Tobacco first was used in the
United States (Albany, NY) as an insecticide in 1814 in the form of “tobacco water” (McIndoo
1943). Finally, nicotine was the active ingredient in Black Leaf 40®, which commonly was used
to control aphids and a variety of other insects until the early 1990s (Roberts and Reigert 2013).
However, although nicotine was an effective insecticide, it also was found to be highly toxic to
humans (Pedigo and Rice 2015).
Pyrethrum, extracted from flowers of several species of Chrysanthemum (or Tanacetum) (Asteraceae)
(Glynne-Jones 2001, Isman 2006, Abivardi 2008), also has had a long history. The earliest record of
which we are aware was in 400 B.C. during the reign of the Persian King Xerxes in which children were
deloused with powder from dry flowers of pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium Trevir. Sch. Bip.)
(Silva-Aguayo 2013). Subsequently, in the First Century ( 0–99 A.D.), Persians used pyrethrum to protect
stored grain (Unsworth 2010), and the Chinese, during the Chou Dynasty, noted the insecticidal proper-
ties of the compound (Mocatta 2003). Following, pyrethrum was traded along the Silk Route into Europe
and the New World and was used to delouse troops from the Napoleonic Wars (1804–1815 A.D.) up
through WWII (Mocatta 2003). Interestingly, pyrethrum became widely used as an insecticidal powder,
known as Persian Insect Powder, in Europe and the United States by the early- to late-1800s (Abivardi
2008). In the early 1900s, a sprayable liquid extraction of pyrethrum first became available and is the
form most commonly used today (Abivardi 2008).
Rotenone (Derris) was introduced in the 1600s (Singh 2012), but not as an insecticide. It originally
was used as a fish poison in South America by the aborigines since at least 1649 and has been used as an
insecticide since 1848 (Pedigo and Rice 2015). It is extracted from the roots of Derris spp. and related
plants (Lonchocarpus spp. and Tephrosia spp.) within the Fabaceae (Isman 2006, Pedigo and Rice 2015).
Rotenone products from Lonchocarpus spp. were called Cubé and those from Derris spp., derris or der-
ris dust (Peairs 1947).
From the 1800s through the early part of the 1900s, not only were botanical insecticides introduced,
but the variety of cultural and chemical controls increased, particularly evident in North America.
Cultural controls commonly utilized included trap cropping, location of host plants, clean culture, timing
of planting date and plant maturation, and others. Chemicals used as inorganic insecticides included such
compounds as petroleum, kerosene, creosote, turpentine, arsenic, sulfur, phosphorus, mercury (Ware
1994, Singh 2012), and many others (Riley 1884). The need for a greater variety of controls in North
America in the 1800s was associated with the invasion and/or spread of several pests including the
San Jose scale [Quadraspidiotus perniciosus (Comstock)] and the Colorado potato beetle [Leptinotarsa
decemlineata (Say)] (Singh 2012). In 1867, Paris green (a mixture of arsenic and copper sulfate) was intro-
duced to control the Colorado potato beetle (O’Brien 1967) and, within a decade, it was also used against
the codling moth [Cydia pomonella (L.)] (Singh 2012). In 1892, lead arsenate was introduced as one of
the most effective inorganic insecticides for control of pests such as gypsy moth [Lymantria dispar ( L .)],