An ancient insectide

[Jona Lendering]

Strabo, quoting Posidonius, mentions an ancient insecticide. He says:

Posidonius also speaks of the asphaltic vine-earth which is mined at the Pierian Seleucia as a cure for the infested vine; for, he says, if it is smeared on together with olive oil, it kills the insects before they can mount the sprouts of the roots; and, he adds, earth of this sort was also discovered in Rhodes when he was in office there as Prytanis, but it required more olive oil. (Geography 7.5.8 )

Does anyone have any idea what product may have been meant?

[D B Campbell]

Rather than a genuine insecticide, it sounds as if the smearing of a sticky bituminous substance (asphalt) on the stalk prevented insects from climbing up to the "good bit" (i.e. the fruit).

There would be a precedent in the use of sticky "bird-lime" (crushed mistletoe berries) to capture birds.

[Magnus]

Yeah, kind of like fly paper...it's covered in sticky goo that the insect can't free itself from.

[Tertius Mummius]

Hey, my father used something like this in the orchard (1980ies).

[hoplite14gr]

In Greece farmers up to now use asbestus on orchards and cover part of the tree trunk from the ground upwards.
Hope it helps.

Kind regards

[Eleatic Guest]

Is there any evidence of the ancients using one species of animals or plants to keep in check another one? I mean, apart from the shepherd's dog and the sheep. :wink: More like, if we deliberatley cultivate this ant heap or that insect, it will keep this rodent or that vermin out of our fields. Basically, people exploiting natural antagonisms in the wild life for their own (agricultural) ends. Any examples?

[PMBardunias]

Finally a question that combines my proffession and my hobby! Jona, if you send me an email, I'll return one with some papers on the topic of ancient insecticides.

In short, many substances, such as ashes and earths, were mixed with olive oil to act as repellents. The bitter liquid left over after olive pressing was used as well. Sesame oil is still used as an organic pesticide, but the caterpillars that ate my Zucchini treated it like tahini. From one reference:

The overall impression gained is that
insects were thought to have an aversion to strong
smells and tastes. Olive oil was believed to be a
particularly effective insecticide (Aristotle, HA VIII 27,
Hipp. Cant. LXXI 14, Aelian IV: 18), especially when
mixed with other substances. Theophrastus appears to
be writing from direct observation when he (DCP VI
5.4) notes that "all insects find oil oppressive for they
avoid the smell of it" and, (op. tit.) "the cause in the
case of olive oil is to be found in pungency just as with
marjoram and the like, for insects avoid them all".
Pliny (HN XIX lviii 178) provides a range of alternative
insecticides: "sea slime", ashes, "chalk", wormwood,
charcoal and cowdung, mixed in water; the
latter is also mentioned by Vergil (Georg. I 178).