Biopesticides have a bright future, but more attention is needed on their application

摘要

When the decision to ban highly persistent organochlorine insecticides was made, there was a dilemma at FAO as they had created strategic stocks of dieldrin, to control locusts when outbreaks occurred in Africa. Scientists at CABI were able to obtaininternational funding to develop a myco-insecticide from fungal spores known to have been collected from locusts. The project took ten years to develop a product, called Green Muscle using what is now known as Metarhizium acri-dum, which is highly effective and selective in controlling a range of acrid-ids. Otherwise in contrast to the chemical insecticides used against locust, it is environmentally safe and has no effect on birds that may eat the locusts. The main problem wasits slow activity, so it takes longer to kill the affected locusts. The success of the programme was due to considerable efforts to develop a formulation that, for practical reasons, had to fit an ultra-low volume technique applying the sprays from aircraft.