![]() ![]() “If you spray an insect with pyrethrum, for the first 30 seconds it goes mental, incredibly hyperactive, then it falls to the floor,” explains Ian Shaw, managing director of the pyrethrum producer Kapi Limited. In its most common applications, pyrethrin paralyzes pests by attacking their central nervous systems. Herders rub pyrethrin ointments on their cattle to repel flies and ticks. But bugs beware: Its yellow center contains a natural toxin that can kill them in seconds.ĭiscovered in Persia around 400 B.C., the flower produces an active ingredient, pyrethrin, that can be extracted and used to create natural insecticides that farmers spray on crops to protect them from mites, ants, and aphids without harming anyone’s health. ![]() To the people who pick them, the flower is utterly harmless. Each morning in the hills above Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, the white petals of the pyrethrum plant become laden with dew. Gilgil, KenyaThe deadliest flower in the insect world is soft to the touch.
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