The transition from planar fronts, trigger waves or solitary pulses to spirals in excitable media, has attracted increasing interest in the past few decades, mainly because of its relevance for biological and medical applications. In this paper we describe a new and convenient method for spiral generation starting from symmetric wavefronts. By using the micelle-forming zwitterionic surfactant N-tetradecyl- N,N-dimethylamine oxide in a Belousov–Zhabotinsky solution, it is possible to control to a large extent the domains where spirals can be spontaneously generated. The mechanism responsible for the wavefront break up lies in the interaction of the propagating waves with the unexcitable regions formed by the interaction of the surfactant with some of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky key intermediates.