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From: "ARS News Service"
To: "ARS News List"
Subject: New Sprays, Trap Slash Insecticide Use
Date: Tue, Nov 20, 2001, 6:34 AM
STORY LEAD:
New Sprays, Trap Promise to Slash Insecticide Use in America's Corn Belt
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, comis@ars.usda.gov
November 20, 2001
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While Agricultural Research Service scientists are not about to satisfy a
plant pest's craving for pumpkin by serving pie, they are only too happy to
serve a family recipe to die for.
The ingredients of that recipe, including cucurbitacins and other chemicals
from the pumpkin and gourd or cucurbit family, attract corn rootworm
beetles. One of these ingredients is in three new, low-insecticide bait
sprays and a monitoring trap for the beetles.
These commercial products have emerged from a 6-year joint ARS- university
research and demonstration program in the Corn Belt. The bait sprays are
CideTrak, made by Trece, Inc., of Salinas, Calif.; Invite, made by FFP
Agriscience, Inc., of Eustis, Fla.; and SLAM, made by MicroFlo, Inc., of
Memphis, Tenn. The trap is the Pherocon Corn Rootworm Trap, also made by
Trece.
The trap lures beetles with volatile plant chemicals. It enables farmers or
consultants to make sample counts of the beetles to decide when the numbers
are high enough to warrant spraying with CideTrak, Invite, or SLAM.
The baits are sprayed aerially on corn leaves where the beetles eat. The
sprays form drops containing cucurbitacins and insecticide. The
cucurbitacins cause the beetles to feed almost exclusively on the drops, so
they ingest a lethal dose of insecticide. CideTrak and SLAM get their
cucurbitacins from wild buffalo gourd root powder, while Invite relies on a
Hawkesbury watermelon juice ingredient.
The actual active insecticidal ingredient in the three sprays is an ounce or
less per acre, which is 95 to 98 percent less than in conventional sprays.
The bitter cucurbitacin doesn't appeal to other insects, so it is safe for
bees and other beneficial insects. The musky smell released when a
cantaloupe is sliced comes primarily from cucurbitacin.
To learn more about this research, see a more detailed story in the November
issue of Agricultural Research magazine, which is on the web at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov01/fungi1101.htm
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
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This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the
latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isjd@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504-1617, fax 504-1648.
