Bio-based insecticidal ingredients have the potential to drive ecologically safer pesticides
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Fresh hope is on the horizon for ecologically safer pesticide ingredients, thanks to the ingenuity of a research team at the University of Delaware.
Insecticides are often considered a foundational part of agricultural production, designed to protect crops used to feed the world's growing population—8.2 billion people and counting as of 2024.
But pesticides often present a conundrum. You want the ingredients to work for a given problem, but you don't want them to be so broad that they unintentionally harm non-targeted species or the environment.
Now, a research team led by UD Professors Dion Vlachos, a chemical and biomolecular engineer, and Michael Crossley, an entomologist and wildlife ecologist, have synthesized new active insecticidal ingredients that are target-specific and ecologically safer than conventional pesticides.
