70 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
A STUDY OF THE TOXICITY OF KEROSENE 1 
By William Moore, Head, Section of Research in Economic Zoology, and 
S. A. Graham, Assistant, Division of Economic Entomology 
Introduction 
During the summer of 1916 Marcovitch, assistant in entomology 
In this division, successfully sprayed a field of potatoes with pure kero¬ 
sene killing the leaf hoppers, Jassidce, without injuring the potato plants. 
Sanderson 2 states that “pure kerosene should never be used on foliage, 
for though occasionally someone will report using it successfully with¬ 
out injury, in almost all cases serious burning of the foliage results.” 
Kerosene and kerosene emulsions have been in general use as insec¬ 
ticides since the early eighties when the first papers on this subject 
appeared. 3 Although good results were often obtained, particularly 
in the use of the emulsions, it is also true that frequently either the 
insects were not destroyed or the foliage was severely burned. 
Where burning has occurred it has been the custom of many ento¬ 
mologists to lay the blame to an imperfect emulsion. The result has 
been that within recent years the use of kerosene as an insecticide has 
been largely abandoned in this country. Results obtained in the 
study of a large series of volatile organic compounds 4 showed that the 
boiling point, as an index of the volatility, had considerable influence 
on their toxicity to insects. With these results in mind it was con¬ 
sidered that a study of the toxicity of kerosene to both plants and 
insects would be of value in clearing up the irregular results frequently 
obtained in using this material. 
Kerosene 
Kerosene is the name applied to an oil intended for burning pur¬ 
poses. It usually consists of those fractions of petroleum distilling 
over between 150° and 300° C. and is required by law to meet a certain 
flash test. Even from the same source such an oil may vary consid- 
1 Published with the approval of the Director, as Paper No. 93 of the Journal 
Series of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. 
2 Sanderson. Insect Pests of Farm Garden and Orchard, p. 49. John Wiley & 
Son, Pub., New York, 1912. 
8 Riley, C. V. Rpt. of Ent., Ann. Rpt. Dept, of Agr., 1884; Rpt. of Ent., Ann. Rpt. 
Dept, of Agr., 1886. Hubbard, H. G. Scale Insects of the Orange, Remedies and 
Application. Rpt. of Ent., pp. 106-126 from Rpt. of Dept, of Agr., 1882. 
4 Moore. Toxicity of Various Benzene Derivatives to Insects, Jour, of Agr. Re¬ 
search, vol. 9, No. 11, 1917; Volatility of Organic Compounds as an Index of their 
Toxicity to Insects, Jour, of Agr. Research, vol. 10, No. 7, 1917. 
