Developing a Natural Nontoxic Replacement for Organophosphate Insecticides in California Nut Crops

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: New government regulations, such as FQPA, public concerns about food safety, and environmental contamination, are driving the devolution of traditional synthetic pesticides. While this might be of benefit in the long-term, in the short-term, U.S. farmers and growers who have come to depend on these tools for productivity may be caught in the middle. There is an immediate need to provide them with alternatives that are efficacious in suppressing pest damage, cost effective, of low mammalian toxicity, and not ecologically disruptive. While effectiveness has been demonstrated for reducing navel orangeworm damage by supression of the attractive oder of the crop, a number of practical drawbacks presently are limiting the use of this approach. Successful development of the proposed product would allow California nut growers to replace FQPA-targeted organophosphate (OP) insecticides and miticides with a nontoxic, non-ecologically disruptive control of key pests in these crops. This would ensure the availability of efficacious and cost-effective replacement as registration of OP insecticides becomes increasingly restricted. Broad adoption of this approach would stimulate the development of similar products for other pests and other crops.