Insecticide would be safe enough for a person to drink, but eliminates pests.
Hanan Elraz, right, in the foreground, and Gil Stav, in the background, with "B Green", checking for aphids on papper plants at Emmi Farm outside Baldwinsville, NY. Lysander, NY -- The future of insecticides in the United States may lie with studies being done right now on a Lysander farm.
An environmentally friendly insecticide — touted to kill harmful bugs without hurting good insects and that is safe for people and animals — is being tested for the first time in the United States at the Emmi vegetable and fruit farm on Route 370.
Inventor Hanan Elraz, director of a company called BGreen based in Israel, and his scientific adviser, Gil Stav, walked some pepper fields late last week. These fields had been sprayed with Elraz’s new insecticide the day before.
They lifted leaves on the plants. There were no aphids — small bugs that suck out plant juices — anywhere on the bright green leaves.
Pepper plants at Emmi Farm outside Baldwinsville, NY, that have been treated for aphids by "BGreen", a company that uses green insecticides. “Aphids transfer disease and eat leaves,” Stav said. “There were 10 aphids per leaf on many of these before we sprayed. Now, we see nothing.”
Elraz said the insecticide is made from herbs, which is what makes it non-toxic. It smells like lemon-lime soda. Stav said it wouldn’t hurt a person if they drank it right out of a bottle, but it tastes horrible.
The product can be used on food pests such as mites and aphids, on mosquitoes and even bed bugs. It kills the adult insects and its larvae and eggs. The Israelis tested it on bed bugs in the housing units of the Mexican migrant workers on the Emmi farm.
“The bugs were jumping out of the walls,” he said. “The Mexicans had their first good night of sleep” after the bugs were killed. “In a different concentration, you can even smear it on your skin like an insect repellent.”
If approved for use in the U.S., it could save farmers money, eliminate the
toxins from insecticides going into groundwater and land and make it possible to eat a tomato without washing or work outside while a plane spraying for mosquitoes flew overhead.“It looks very promising,” said Tony Emmi, who runs the 200-acre vegetable and fruit farm. “We did some initial trials this week and it’s killing aphids, spider mites and thirps. And it’s 100 percent safe. It would change the way we do things here.”
The cost savings come from not having to spray as often. Elraz said while the product costs about the same per acre as conventional insecticides, a farmer saves from spraying only once a month instead of once every three to four days.
Stav said the product has been used in Israel for about two years. The product has been approved for use in California, but on flowers only.
Tsutomu Nakatsugawa, a professor at the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, researches the health effects of pesticides and other pollutants. He said a product made from herbs or plants isn’t necessarily non-toxic. He said he would have to look at data from all the product testing to see how environmentally friendly the product really is.
Many of the items used to kill bugs today are organophosphates or contain chemicals that interfere with the nervous and respiratory systems of insects. Experts say the nervous and respiratory systems of people and animals also can be affected when they come in contact with these agents.
--Contact Debra J. Groom at dgroom@syracuse.com, 470-3254 or 251-5586.