A sunscreen for biopesticides
Insect pests consume around a third of all the crops we grow, sometimes threatening food security. The main way of controlling these pests is by spraying chemical pesticides but these can be damaging to the environment and so safer alternatives are urgently required including more effective biological pesticides.
Professor Kenneth Wilson of the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University and Principal Scientist David Grzywacz of the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich, both experts in the field of insect viruses, have been working with the lean formulations company, Exosect Ltd, on a two-year biopesticide formulation programme.
Their novel solution could protect biopesticide from the damaging ultraviolet radiation in sunlight, extending the crop persistence dramatically.
