Scientists Research Using Sugars As Insecticides Sugar esters tested by Agriculture Research Service and university entomologists around the country could find use as environmentally friendly insecticides. The esters are lethal — almost immediately — to nearly all mites and soft-bodied insects, such as whiteflies, aphids, thrips, and pear psylla that they contact. Then they degrade into harmless sugars and fatty acids.
This article appeared in The Grower, September 2000.
These sugar esters do little harm to beneficial predatory insects, and are non-toxic to animals and humans. Some are even approved as food-grade safe. And because of how the esters work, insect pests are not expected to develop resistance to them anytime soon.
The control concept originated about a decade ago. Now, four years of testing have shown the sugar esters to be as good as — or better than — conventional insecticides against mites and aphids on apples; psylla on pears; whiteflies, thrips, and mites on vegetables; and whiteflies on cotton.
Like insecticidal soaps, the esters kill insects by either dissolving their protective waxy coatings or suffocating.
ARS and AVA Chemical Ventures of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, have applied for a patent. The company hopes to market the first of these sugar ester compounds by the end of this year, pending U. S. Environmental Protection Agency registration.