Our study examines how varying the sugar and alipatic acid components of sugar esters influences its insecticidal activity against a range of insect species. The performance of these compounds were compared to a common insecticidal soap, M-Pede, to determine how toxicologically similar these materials were to arthropod pests. Sucrose octanoate had the highest activity against aphids, psyllids, mites, and tobacco hornworm. Sorbitol octanoate and xylitol decanoate showed lower activity against pear psylla and tobacco aphid, but had high mite activity equal to sucrose octanoate. There were no trends in insecticidal activity associated with substituting different sugar or aliphatic acid components of sugar esters.
Keywords: Acylsucrose, biorational insecticide
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA