NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - If you're looking for nontoxic, environmentally friendly ways to control pests in your garden, you should concoct a pitcher of tobacco "sun tea" - and keep it on hand.

This special tea can help you eliminate most garden pests without any unwanted toxicity.

Tobacco tea has a lower toxicity rate than rotenone, and rotenone is a good, legal, organic pest control, according to David Liebman, scientist, handwriting-expert and nature-oriented photographer who lives and gardens in Norfolk, Va.

Nicotine in chewing tobacco isn't the same chemistry as nicotine sulfate, he said. Nicotine sulfate is illegal and quite toxic. A few drops on your skin can make you sick. Nicotine sulfate is manufactured by combining nicotine from tobacco waste with sulfur. Homemade tobacco teas don't produce this substance.

Some insects will be totally unaffected, especially pests that prey on tomato and related plants. Tomato and tobacco hornworms are the larvae of a lovely sphinx moth. These insects are actually immune to the natural toxins in tobacco, tomato and datura plants such as the angel's trumpet.

"I have actually observed an angel plant decimated by pests thriving on this toxic plant," he said. "The active ingredient is the same thing you want to use in a much-diluted form as a pest control."

If you want to use a natural pest control with no tobacco in it, Liebman suggests you use a "tea" made with garlic, hot pepper powder, canola oil and liquid soap.

For a tobacco-based one, he recommends, you heat about a spoonful of natural chewing tobacco per gallon of water for about 45 minutes. Spray it on plants. It's safe for bees, ants and ladybugs, he said, plus it dissipates rapidly in the environment.