Fungus for Pest Control

Description and Advantages

An international research team directed from CA-BI Bioscience headquarters near Ascot, southern England, has developed the Green Muscle - a new non-chemical, biological insecticide. The Green Muscle has been formulated using a naturally occurring fungus (metarhizium) which specifically infects and kills locusts without incurring the dangers that chemical sprays pose to both handlers and species in the food chain, including bird and reptiles.

Green Muscle is composed of fungus spores formulated in oil and applied at ultra low volume of less than one litre per hectare by hand, vehicle or aircraft spraying. The solution developed for manufacture, marketing and sale by the licensee, Biological Control Products of Durban, South Africa, is also available in powder form for local mixing. The spores are grown on rice in laboratory conditions at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture based at Cotonou in Benin. But the fungus can be found in many places worldwide and its spores could be widely grown on cereal hosts elsewhere.

Application

Agriculture

Source : ISIS Innovations