Radiation a viable alternative to pesticides?
Scientists from the IAEA and the UN´s Food and Agriculture Organisation are working on a project to control agricultural pests using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which uses radiation to sterilise pests, as reported by theNuclear Power Industry News Blog.
Focusing on the Olive Fruit Fly (Bactrocera oleae) a project is underway to investigate the success of using nuclear technologies to render male flies sterile through exposure to radiation. Radiated male flies are released into the wild, theoretically reducing the number of successfully fertilised fly eggs.
This is a form of pest control known as Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which also includes the production of genetically modified insects.
It would be interesting to compare the efficiency and environmental impacts of releasing sterile radiated pests for crop protection and the use of pesticides with active ingredients such as endocrine disruptors.
PesticideInformation will follow developments. If you have an opinion on this, or would like to share a useful link, please leave us a comment below…
Sterile Insect Technique it is often promoted by environmentalists. When confronted with the use of nuclear energy to produce this type of insects, they tend to ignore it. So, your suggestion of comparison with some active ingredients is quite original and maybe worthwhile to further investigate.
The Olive Fruit Fly, Bactrocera oleae is spreading fast in olive producing orchards of Iran/ other countries. SIT technic would be a
good alternative for dangerous pesticides considering high potential of holding pesticide residues by olive fruit and its oil, but this
method needs an Island situation of the pest infestation. However the SIT techinc is so promissing that it worth to try it in some infested
aread againg this dangerous pest.