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Researcher: Canola Oil Kills Grasshoppers

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 October 2004, 07:52 CDT

MINOT, N.D. (AP) -- Raw canola oil can combine with a fungus to get rid of grasshoppers, a researcher says. Stefan Jaronski, who works at the Agricultural Research Service in Sidney, Mont., has found that the raw canola oil has fatty acids that will attract grasshoppers to deadly fungi known as Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae.

Jaronski mixed spores of the fungi with the oil, and he found grasshoppers were drawn to plants sprayed with the mixture. They became infected with the fungi while feeding on the sprayed plants, and usually died within a week, he said.

Jaronski, who has worked with insect-killing fungi since 1983, said grasshoppers find the black and strong-smelling raw canola oil irresistible. It is less expensive than processed canola oil, and using it for grasshopper control could create a new market for canola, he said.

Jaronski said he tested rangeland in Wyoming and South Dakota that had severe grasshopper infestations. As in the lab, grasshoppers were attracted to the canola oil and became infected with the fungal spores, he said.

The canola oil-fungal combination also costs less because grasshoppers are attracted to more concentrated areas within a field, meaning less of the canola oil is needed, Jaronski said.

In Wyoming, he said, "they (insects) seem to be attracted to the strips and leave the untreated areas alone."

The Beauveria fungus recently became available for sale in the United States. Jaronski, who once worked in private industry, helped get the fungus registered and commercially released. He said it is not as effective as chemicals but, "if you want a good alternative, this is it."

Jaronski believes the Metarhizium fungus has more promise, primarily because it attacks only grasshoppers and Mormon crickets and does not infect such beneficial insects as the flea beetles used to naturally control leafy spurge.

Jaronski is working to get the fungus, which is now considered exotic, registered in the United States.

"The Metarhizium is better adapted to hot, dry conditions," Jaronski said. "A strain has been developed for locusts in Africa and for grasshoppers in Australia."

Jaronski said biological controls for insects should be available to the public in 10 years.

"We're going after the permits," Jaronski said. "So I'm optimistic that by 2006, we'll have the permits, followed by three years of field trials. That will tell us how effective it will be."

It shows promise for organic producers and Fish and Wildlife Service areas where chemicals are not allowed, he said.

Jaronski acknowledged there is some fear about biological agents not native to an environment.

Since 1983, he said, only once has he seen Beauveria briefly become epidemic, then die back to natural levels. That was in Nebraska, where conditions were ideal, and it persisted about a week, he said.

"The fungi are normally in equilibrium with the insects and infect just enough to survive over the years," Jaronski said. "If they create a really infectious, fatal disease, they can kill themselves off in the end."

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