
Read moreabout the decoys in the January issue of Agricultural Researchmagazine. USDA and Small Business to
Test-Manufacture Insect DecoyBy Ben Hardin March 21, 2000PEORIA, Ill., March 21--Biodegradable decoys that "fatally
attract" insect pests may soon become the first product to be made in
U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities
and offered for sale. The decoys, hung in trees at the edge of orchards, may
provide an alternative to repeated chemical insecticide sprays for insects such
as apple maggot flies. Inventors of the decoys were scientists of USDA's
Agricultural Research Service and the
Biotechnology Research and Development Corp. (BRDC), Peoria, Ill., and the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A
milestone in the invention's development occurred yesterday, March 20, as
officials of USDA, BRDC and the entrepreneurial company FruitSpheres Inc., of
Macomb, Ill., gathered here to sign an agreement. The limited option agreement
will allow FruitSpheres to obtain an exclusive license to produce the patented
spherical decoys. Different versions of the decoys can be made to attract specific insects
related to the apple maggot fly including pests of blueberries, cherries, pears
and walnuts. Made from sugar, high fructose corn syrup and corn flour and then coated
with latex enamel paint and an insecticide, the decoys will be
test-manufactured this year in a recently renovated pilot plant of the
National Center for Agricultural
Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria. A provision in 1998 federal
legislation (P.L. 105-185) allows some companies to use government facilities
to test commercialization potential of new technologies aimed at increasing
agricultural commodity utilization. "By partnering in the scale-up of this product, we hope to show that we
can help bridge the gap to commercial production," ARS Administrator Floyd
Horn said. "And we're pleased that our first joint efforts with industry
in the renovated NCAUR pilot plant may advance environmentally friendly
technologies." ARS is the USDA's chief scientific research agency. Helping ARS and BRDC
scientists research the decoy's insect-killing power in field tests were
colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst;
Michigan State University, East Lansing;
and Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
N.J. Decoys have protected apples from the apple maggot fly as effectively as
using three spray applications of the commonly used insecticide azinphosmethyl.
Controlling the pest with the decoy instead of widely dispersed sprays helps
keep apples untouched by insecticide. The decoys are designed to suit insects' preferences for color, shape, size
and surface texture. Apple maggot flies fall for an apple-size sphere painted
black which, like a red apple, doesn't reflect ultraviolet light. Green spheres
attract the blueberry maggot fly. Commercial manufacture and sales of the decoys containing registered
pesticides for use in the United States require approval by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. To this
end, a committee in a federal agricultural program called IR-4, which includes
federal and state scientists, is submitting research data that will help the
EPA determine whether the decoys containing the insecticide imidacloprid can be
used for certain minor crops. FruitSpheres, Inc. expects to have production equipment running at the NCAUR
pilot plant this summer in order to provide samples of the product to
researchers and commercial growers. Under the option agreement that can be
converted to a license, the company will be set to produce larger quantities
for sale in the year 2001. An article about the research appears in the January issue of ARS' Agricultural Research magazine. Scientific contact: Michael R. McGuire,
Bioactive Agents
Research, ARS National Center for
Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill., phone (309) 681-6595, fax
(309) 681-6693, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture |