Advertisement featuring a billboard reading "Toxaphene kills cotton insects" with a depiction of a tuft of cotton wool. Two men are visible in the foreground, one holding a tuft of cotton wool.

Originally trademarked by the Hercules Powder Company, Toxaphene was a synthetic organic insecticide toxicant primarily used in agricultural insecticides.

Formed in 1912 as part of an anti-trust settlement with DuPont, the Hercules Powder Company (later Hercules Inc.) initially specialized in the manufacture of explosives and smokeless powders and subsequently diversified its business to encompass a variety of industrial products, including pine and paper chemicals, synthetics, pigments, polymers, and cellulose.