Bee friendly pesticide launched which kills Botrytis

A British company has developed a new pesticide that kills botrytis and protects grapes from pests whilst being honey-bee friendly. An agreement has been signed by Eden Research and SIPCAM a chemical manufacturing company based in Milan to sell 3AEY. The previous pesticides used Neonicotinoids which were banned because of their effect on honey bee populations. The product is based on the company’s encapsulation technology which takes naturally occurring chemicals produced by plants, known as terpenes, and harnesses their effects to produce a longer lasting pesticide. For example, lemon juice can kill aphids, but only for 12 hours. When subject to Eden’s encapsulation technology, it can remain active for up to 14 days. The company has so far spent £12 million developing the technology over the course of a decade, with this agreement coming off the back of a number of agricultural trials of the product, including one in Greece which was seen to successfully combat botrytis in grapes.