Orange Oil for Drywood Termites : Magic or Marketing Madness ?

There is a thriving market for reduced-risk pesticides. Many pesticides containing conventional active ingredients such as chlorpyrifos and diazinon have been phased out of urban markets. Their widespread use in both agriculture and urban areas had led to increased exposures and unacceptable risks (FQPA 1996; NRC 1993; Wright et al. 1994). They were also a threat to water quality in many areas (Johnson 2004). A rich source of new pesticides is plant essential oils. Some of these occur in food and are even exempted from pesticide registration by the EPA. Active ingredients in the new products include oils of clove, rosemary, mint, and oranges. Large corporations such as EcoSmart, Woodstream, and Whitmire have made these pesticides readily available (Quarles 1999a; Isman 2006) (see Resources). Orange oil has attracted a lot of media interest because it is a natural product and has low toxicity to mammals. It is a by-product of orange juice processing, and is extracted from orange peels. Orange oil is currently available as an insecticide (Orange GuardTM; ProCitra®) and as an herbicide (Green MatchTM) (see Resources). It has been registered in California under the brandname XT-2000TM for control of drywood termites. If all the claims are true, it is the holy grail of pest control—an effective natural product with low toxicity and no toxic residuals; a green product obtained by utilization of waste. The purpose of this article is to present what is currently known about orange oil for termite control so that possible customers will have better information to evaluate the treatment. For comparison, we will summarize some of the other methods used in California for drywood termite control.