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California Insect Powder

Categories: Grains and Forage Crops

What part of the plant is used in making insect powder and how is it

prepared? Is the plant a perennial? What soil suits it best?



The plant is Pyrethrum cinerariaefolium and has a white blossom

resembling the common marguerite. The powder is made of the petals and

the seed capsules or heads are thoroughly dried in the sun and ground

with a run of stone such as was formerly used for making flour. The

powder must be finely ground, and only good powder can be made in a mill

suitably equipped for that purpose. The plant is a perennial, beginning

to bloom the second year from seed. It will grow in any good soil with

ordinary cultivation. Twenty-five years ago it was thought that a great

California industry might be established on that basis, but there is at

the present time but one establishment, which grows about all the

material it can use on its own ranch in Merced county, on a fine, deep

loam which the plant seems to enjoy.



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