
Synthetic Sugar Ester Controls Whiteflies, Other PestsBy Hank Becker July
10, 1998Some look-alikes may be better than the real thing. This could be
especially true for synthetic forms of a compound made by Nicotiana, a
wild relative of tobacco. Nicotiana leaves manufacture sugar esters that break down the "skin"
of a feeding insect, causing the pest to dry up and die. The esters have
excellent potential as natural control agents for silverleaf whiteflies and
other soft-bodied pests. They are relatively harmless to beneficial, hard-bodied
predators like lady beetles. But extracting the esters from Nicotiana can be difficult and
expensive. Synthetic esters have sidestepped these drawbacks. Gary J. Puterka of the Agricultural
Research Service in Kearneysville, W.Va., and Ava Chemical Ventures,
Portsmouth, N.H., are working under a cooperative research and development
agreement to identify synthetic sugar ester formulations effective in controlling insects. In field and lab tests, a spray mix of water and synthetic esters controlled
pear psylla and other soft-bodied insect pests. Ava is registering a synthetic
ester with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the California Department of
Food and Agriculture. ARS scientists believe the new ester may be registered
as early as 1999. In addition to pursuing synthetic esters, ARS scientists screened nearly two
dozen Nicotiana species to see which ones were the best sources of
natural sugar esters to combat pests like the silverleaf whitefly. This insect
causes multimillion-dollar crop losses each year to U.S. cotton and many fruits,
vegetables and ornamentals. Whiteflies spend lots of time on the undersides of leaves, shielded from
insecticide spray. But the scientists tested a new fogger that the insects
can't escape so readily. Details are in the July issue of Agricultural
Research magazine. The story also is on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul98/soft0798.htm Scientific Contact: Gary J. Puterka, ARS
Appalachian Fruit Research
Station, Kearneysville, WV, phone (304) 728-3451, ext. 361, fax (304)
728-2340, email [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |