# Smoke and Bugs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-and-bugs/199217>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 2, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-and-bugs/199217 "2003-09-02T21:51:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jplacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jplacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jplacer)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-and-bugs/199217/1 "2003-09-02T21:51:11Z")

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This may be kinda silly but …

A few nights ago, a friend and I were outside smoking cigarettes. My friend started blowing smoke on a few of the ants and spiders that were crawling around the porch.

He said he was blowing smoke at them, because it will kill the bugs. His reasoning … all the toxic stuff in cig. smoke overwhelms their little bodies and kills them.

Is my friend making this up or is there any truth to his reasoning?

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-and-bugs/199217/2 "2003-09-02T22:13:14Z")

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Nicotine is toxic to insects. In fact, that’s why tobacco plants produce it, in order to deter plant-eating bugs. In fact, [nictotine sprays](http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/insect-mite/mevinphos-propargite/nicotine/insect-prof-nicotine.html) are sometimes used as insecticides, although they are not that popular in the U.S. today.

That said, I suspect the concentration of nicotine in cigarette smoke is not nearly enough to kill them outright, but it may annoy them.