In 2010 an inventor in the US applied for a patent on a poison for killing insects, with no "prior art" regarding the two components: an attractant (sugar) and a repellant (poison). However, chocolate-covered insecticide powder was already on the market some two hundred years ago.
The Vicat family of France, chemists by trade, included a seller of chocolate. At some point in the 1800s the chocolatier conceived of coating insecticide with chocolate.
Vicat's insecticide came in at least two sizes of bottle - one for the coat pocket, and one for leaving at home and used to fill the pocket-size bottle. Originally it appears to have been 'flea powder' but also was used for bed-bugs. The images below show the pocket-flea powder (for example used in horse-drawn cabs in London which were rife with fleas) and a sample of the slightly larger 'leave-at-home' size. The product bears a flea embossed on the bottle.
The Vicat family of France, chemists by trade, included a seller of chocolate. At some point in the 1800s the chocolatier conceived of coating insecticide with chocolate.
Vicat's insecticide came in at least two sizes of bottle - one for the coat pocket, and one for leaving at home and used to fill the pocket-size bottle. Originally it appears to have been 'flea powder' but also was used for bed-bugs. The images below show the pocket-flea powder (for example used in horse-drawn cabs in London which were rife with fleas) and a sample of the slightly larger 'leave-at-home' size. The product bears a flea embossed on the bottle.
