Lab Report

Teacher: Karim Amortegui Santiago Flores Pablo Gonzlez 7A

Tobacco Based Insecticide.

Introduction
Our goal for the science fair project this year was to create a working insecticide with tobacco as the base product. Farmers throughout the years have used Tobacco and Nicotine as base products to create full working insecticides, this, not only cheap but also easy to make have proven to be a very successful. Our basic concern is how to make the insecticide strong but not strong enough that it gets to the point of killing the plant.

HYPHOTHESIS
By making a Tobacco based pesticide using the main killing functions of this it should kill the insects without damaging the plant, then in many days use it should have killed or ended with the plague, if not then the procedure should be checked in order to find the mistake, fix it and then follow the previously mentioned steps until the goal of killing the insects but keep the plant untouched is achieved.
Is a tobacco made pesticide functional and non-harmful to the enviorment? If a tobacco based pesticide is friendly to the enviorment then it would kill the insects but keep the plant unharmed because the main ingredient affects the insects but not the plants nor human beings.

List Of Materials
A 1/3 cup of dry tobacco. 1 liter of water. Dish washing liquid (soap). A fine sieve. Plastic storage containers. A plant mister. Plant or plants. Insects.

Procedure
Steep a cup of dry tobacco in a gallon of water for at least half an hour. Soaking for longer produces a stronger pesticide, and some gardeners leave the tobacco mixture to soak for a day. Stronger pesticides might work faster, but they are also more dangerous to beneficial garden insects. Add a squirt of dishwashing liquid to the mixture. This improves the spreadability of the pesticide and is mildly toxic to some pests in its own right. Strain the liquid into plastic storage containers, through a fine sieve, to remove the tobacco pieces. Tighten the lids securely. The pesticide will keep for a couple of weeks if stored somewhere cool, for example, in a garage or basement. Transfer the mixture to a plant mister. Target the pests and use as little spray as possible. For example, spray growing shoots that are thickly covered in aphids but not nearby, aphid-free leaves. Tobacco spray is natural but still dangerous to useful insects, such as ladybugs.

RESULT
The result of our insecticide was very good, we proved it with a lot of plants in the greenhouse, we checked the plants in many days to confirm that our insecticide was working correctly. On the lab, Bobby told us that we should only spatter our insecticide tuesdays and fridays, so the risk of killing the plant would decrease to a minimum. Here are some photos of some plants that were full of pulgones but when we spattered our insecticide the pulgones died.

Levels of Soap. 0% 50% 100%

Time before the cricket died. 7 minutes. 5 minutes. 1 or 2 minutes.

Damages to the plant. none none none

Effectivity against pulgones. Died but kept coming. Died but in time came back Died and never came back

Discussion
Daniel: Valeria what do you think of the insecticide? Do you think it worked well enough? What is your opinion? Valeria: I think the one with no soap was not good enough, while the one with a lot of soap fulfilled its purpose in every way possible I mean it was fast, cheap, and did no harm to the plant. Daniel: Well I think both worked just perfectly, the one with almost no soap worked fine it killed the insect in almost no time, but the one with a lot of soap killed the insect in like 1 or 2 minutes while any of them did no harm that one worked exquisitely. What do you think? Valeria: Well they both worked but it depends, for example if you have to kill them fast use the one with more soap, but if you have time use the other one because if you use the one with a lot of soap it might kill the plant at some point. Daniel: To finish, I think that the killing functions of Tobacco can work as an actual insecticide and a really good one because its cheap, it fulfilled its purpose. Valeria: Well this is it for today, thank you for listening we hope we do this again.

Conclusion
Due to our results it is certain that our hypothesis was right, the killing functions of Tobacco can work as an actual insecticide and a really good one because its cheap, easy to make and fulfills its description. I would personally recommend the use of Nicotine in the future because it has more potential (or that is what I read the other day) but has a greater chance of killing the plant and another option would be to try one made of the ashes of a cigar. As seen in this experiment the formula we used was exact and it worked really as if it was one with a brand, the materials we used were the needed ones and i think we did not use more than 100 pesos so this is the perfect way to do a homemade Tobacco based insecticide.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites
http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2010/acs-presspac-october-27-2010/tobacco-and-its-evil-cousin-nicotineare-good-as-a-pesticide.html http://www.researchgate. net/post/Is_pesticide_obtained_from_tobacco_leave_more_harmful_than_synthetic_pesticides_like_DDT_BHC_etc http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2901

Book
http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/organic-gardening-books/10

Magazine
http://www.organicgardening.com/