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. Virtually harmless to mammals and birds, 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 harmless, 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 harmlessly.

Properly used according to straightforward label instructions, DIATECT®'s natural insect control products have the least harmful environmental effect of any insecticide on the market. Once exposed to the natural environment, the Pyrethrum degrades to leave nothing harmful to accumulate in the environment, the natural food chain, or in our food supplies. This combination of a very lethal insect killer combined with no negative environmental effects makes our insect control products nearly perfect insecticides.

Diatomaceous Earth — Safe as Sand but Lethal to Insects

Diatomaceous Earth, which is also called DE or silicon dioxide, is as chemically inert as road dust, but when properly used, it is very effective against insect pests. Unlike ‘chemical insecticides’ of the last half of the 20th Century, 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 safe to humans and yet 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. But the structures are so small that DE feels as soft as baby powder to humans.

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, but it is not toxic to warm blooded or higher animals such as mammals or birds.

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 is not toxic and 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.