DIATECT Insect Killer Ingredients

Pyrethrins - Fast Knockdown from African Daisy Extract
Diatomaceous Earth - Safe as Sand but Lethal to Insects
PBO - Synthetic Sassafras Oil for Longer Lasting Effectiveness

Pyrethrins — Fast Knockdown from African Daisy Extract

Pyrethrins are oily liquid esters, carefully refined from flowers of the Chrysanthemum family commonly known as the ‘African Daisy’. Until recently, grown in only exotic, out-of-the-way places such as East Africa, India and New Guinea, it is now cultivated in otherwise suitable, non-traditional locations such as Australia. This well understood, well documented, pesticide acts on insects’ central and peripheral nervous systems by causing immediate paralysis.

What then is the advantage of Pyrethrum over man-made insecticides? Oddly, its advantage is the same as its disadvantage, until it is combined with Diatomaceous Earth, or DE. When Pyrethrum is exposed to conditions of the natural environment such as the UV light in sunshine, it rapidly oxidizes and breaks down into, naturally occurring compounds. It kills insects quickly, but then it disappears. That is useful in many ways, particularly when dealing with stored food or crops to be harvested the next day. When combined properly with DE the life of Pyrethrum can be extended to provide a longer effective kill time but still disappear quickly.

Properly used according to straightforward label instructions, DIATECT®'s insect control products have a quick a powerful effect on your target insects. Once exposed to the natural environment, the Pyrethrum degrades to leave only the Diatomaceous earth behind as a long lasting barrier. This combination of a very lethal insect killer combined with long lasting barrier effects makes our insect control products very effective insecticides for many uses.

Diatomaceous Earth — Dirt that is Lethal to Insects

Diatomaceous Earth, which is also called DE or silicon dioxide, is not a chemical, and when properly used, it is very effective against insect pests. DE is a ‘physical’ or ‘mechanical’ insecticide.

Knowledge of one fact about insects and two facts about DE is required in order to understand how DE can be very effective in killing insects.

Insects control their body moisture by means of a complex ‘waxy’ coating on the outside of their exoskeletons, i.e., their shells. This coating is naturally porous, which permit slow loss of water and evaporation. If the waxy coating is damaged, the insect suffers serious injury.

DE is made up of ancient skeletal remains of diatoms. These one-celled creatures have hard, sharp structures that are small enough to cut or pierce the insect’s waxy coating.

DE is also an excellent absorbent that is used in cleaning oils spills or kitty litter. This strong absorbency literally sucks the life fluid from insects. Because this is a mechanical process, DE can be literally effective forever. However, this is also a slow process when used alone.

Our insect control products combine DE with a second of Mother Nature’s gifts, Pyrethrum from African Daisies. Pyrethrum is a lethal nerve irritant to insects in very small doses.

Piperonyl Butoxide — Synthetic Sassafras Oil for Longer Lasting Effectiveness

Piperonyl Butoxide, or PBO, is not an insecticide but is a synthetic sassafras oil. Various parts of the sassafras tree have been used as food additives for many years. Sassafras tea has been made for generations and sarsaparilla, the flavor in root beer is the extract from the sassafras tree.

In our products, it is used as an inexpensive synergist to reduce the amount of pyrethrum required to kill insects and thus reducing the cost of our insect control products. Originally extracted from a variety of Sassafras, PBO is now synthesized to make it available on a sustainable basis in quantities greater than possible from the wild. PBO when properly combined with Pyrethrum, the effectiveness of Pyrethrum is enhanced many fold. In addition, PBO retards the rapid oxidation of Pyrethrum to both, improves its shelf life, and increases the effective life of Pyrethrum in the field.