Using Sticky Oil Spray on Plants as an Alternative to Pesticides

Spraying plants with sticky traps consisting of tiny oil droplets traps small pests while rendering larger insects such as bees harmless. The researchers who developed the product hope it will help reduce the use of chemical pesticides.

The inspiration for the design came from the glandular hairs found on some plants, which have sticky tips that trap insects. thomas codger At Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The moss moss, which captures insects as a food source, is probably the best-known example of a plant with glandular trichomes, but many other plants also have glandular trichomes to protect themselves from herbivorous pests. They have trichomes for protection.

The difficult part of the oil idea was finding a formulation that didn't require specialized equipment, but could be used in the sprayers producers already use, Kozier says. The researchers' solution is to oxidize certain vegetable oils and mix them vigorously with water to create tiny droplets, mostly less than 1 millimeter in diameter.

The resulting particles will not clog the sprayer, but will stick to the plants for several weeks. “It's literally oil, air, a little heat, and patience,” Kozier said.

Spray traps work similarly to sticky paper and glue traps that have long been used to capture other pests by physically capturing small animals. The advantage of spray traps is that the trap is placed on the plant itself and does not trap large insects, including beneficial insects such as bees and hoverflies.

“One of the biggest reasons is that [sticky] “Currently, traps are not used in greenhouses because they destroy pollinators and other beneficial insects,” Kozier said.

In experiments, researchers found that when sticky traps were applied to plants, they captured at least five to six out of every 10 adult thrips attached to the plants, he said. Thrips are a group of small sap-sucking insects that can seriously damage many plants from chrysanthemums to tomatoes.

A spray approach is even more effective when capturing thrips larvae, according to Codger. “There's recent data that shows it prevents population explosion.”

For crops such as tomatoes, the idea is to spray the plants before the fruit develops, he says, which is non-toxic and certainly safer than chemical pesticides. The team plans to apply for regulatory approval in Europe within a year.

Researchers also made traps to target different types of small plant pests by adding insect attractants produced by the plants to attract the pests or to attract predators of the pests. We are also considering making it adjustable. It can also be adjusted by changing the size of the particles.