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
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax 504-1648.
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From: "ARS News Service"
To: "ARS News List"
Subject: Environmentally Friendly Insecticides
Date: Fri, Mar 10, 2000, 6:32 AM
STORY LEAD:
Environmentally Friendly Insecticides Are Sugar-Coated - For Real
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Judy McBride, (301) 504-1628, jmcbride@asrr.arsusda.gov
March 10, 2000
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Environmentally friendly insecticides--an oxymoron? Not these sugar esters
tested by Agricultural Research Service and university entomologists around
the country.
They're lethal to mites and soft-bodied insects--whiteflies, aphids, thrips
and pear psylla--almost instantly after contact. Then Mother Nature takes
over, degrading the esters into harmless sugars and fatty acids. And they do
little harm to insect predators and are completely nontoxic to animals and
people. In fact, some are approved as food-grade safe.
AVA Chemical Ventures of Portsmouth, N.H., and ARS recently applied for a
patent on the sugar esters. AVA hopes to have the first of these compounds
on the market by the end of this year, pending registration with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
The sugar esters can kill up to 100 percent of the soft-bodied insects and
mites they contact. And insects are not expected to develop resistance any
time soon because of the way the esters work, according to ARS entomologist
Gary Puterka at the agency's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in
Kearneysville, W.Va. Puterka coordinated the studies nationwide and is
co-inventor on the new patent.
Throughout four years of tests, the sugar esters have been more--or as--
effective as conventional insecticides against mites and aphids in apple
orchards; psylla in pear orchards; whiteflies, thrips and mites on
vegetables; and whiteflies on cotton. Pear psylla have become resistant even
to newer insecticides, according to Puterka, and mites are becoming
resistant.
The drawbacks: The esters must come into contact with the insect to be
effective, and they don't kill insect eggs. Like insecticidal soaps, sugar
esters kill insects by either suffocating them or by dissolving the waxy
coating that protects them from drying environments.
The concept of using sugar esters as an environmentally friendly insect
control started about 10 years ago when ARS scientists in Beltsville, Md.,
found that the leaf hairs of wild tobacco plants exuded a sugar ester to
defend itself against insects and other arthropods.
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Scientific contact: Gary J. Puterka, ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station,
Kearneysville, W.Va., phone (304) 725-3451 X361, fax (304) 728-2340,
gputerka@afrs.ars.usda.gov.
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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
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax 504-1648.
