A screen of fungi for insecticidal activity revealed the ability of Aspergillus versicolor to make versimide, methyl-alpha-(methylsuccinimido)acrylate, a novel contact insecticide. The larvicidal activities of Alternaria tenuis and Fusarium lateritium were found to be due to tenuazonic acid and diacetoxyscirpenol, respectively. Thiolutin, cycloheximide, rubratoxin, patulin, trichothecin, an act...

Residual insecticidal activity of Bacilltls thtlringiensis Berliner encapsulated in cornstarch was detern1ined by using two separate tests. In the first test, granules with various additives were placed in whorls ofcorn plants in the field, collected over time, and bioassayed against neonate Ostrinia ntlbilalis (Hubner). During a wet year (1990) when 10 em rain fell during the exposure time, in...

Crops engineered to produce insecticidal crystal (Cry) proteins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have revolutionised pest control in agriculture. However field-level resistance to Bt has developed in some targets. Utilising novel vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vips), also derived from Bt but genetically distinct from Cry toxins, is a possible solution that biotechnical com...

Lepidopteran insect pests are the main class of pests causing significant damage to crop plant yields. Insecticidal scorpion peptides exhibit toxicity specific for insects. Here, we report that a peptide LMX, optimized from the insect-specific scorpion neurotoxin LqhIT2, showed high levels of activity against rice leaf folder in vitro and in planta. Oral ingestion of LMX protein led to a signif...

Bacillus thuringiensis is the leading biopesticide used to control insect pests worldwide. Although they have a long record of safe use, under certain conditions commercial strains of B. thuringiensis have the ability to produce numerous putative enterotoxins that have been associated with food poisoning attributed to Bacillus cereus. Therefore, we designed a strategy to delete the genes encodi...

The housefly, Musca domestica is a ubiquitous insect that has potential to spread wide variety of pathogens to humans and livestock animals leading to diseases and huge economic losses in developing countries. Flies have resisted human attempts to control them since antiquity and the problem of fly resistance to synthetic insecticides had resulted in need to develop biopesticides as an alternat...

Quassin and 8 congeners, 1-9, were identified as active principles in Picrasma quassioides for the paralytic/acute insecticidal activity upon subcutaneous injection in the American cockroach. The activity was prolonged by applying the metabolic inhibitors for oxidation and esterification before injecting the quassinoids. The nature of the insecticidal activity seems to differ from that of other...