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19 June 2020 The Artificial Sweetener, Erythritol, Has Insecticidal Properties Against Pear Psylla (Hemiptera: Psyllidae)
Katie Wentz, W. Rodney Cooper, David R. Horton, Robert Kao, Louis B. Nottingham
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Abstract

Erythritol is a dietary sweetener that is used for low-calorie or diabetic diets. Although safe for human consumption, erythritol is lethal to certain Dipteran pests, but insecticidal effects of erythritol on phloem-feeding insects have yet to be examined. Our goal was to determine whether erythritol has insecticidal activity against pear psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola (Foerster) (Hemiptera: Psyllidae). We first demonstrated that ingestion of erythritol solutions compared with water by pear psylla caused reduced feeding, impaired motor functions, and reduced survival time of adults. We then tested whether foliar treatment of pear leaves with erythritol was also lethal to pear psylla. Foliar treatment of erythritol led to reduced 3-d survival of pear psylla nymphs and adults, and reduced rates of oviposition by pear psylla adults. Psylla adults also preferred to settle on untreated leaves than on erythritol-treated leaves in preference assays. Finally, we conducted field experiments to test whether applications of erythritol provided pear trees with protection against pear psylla under natural field conditions. Those experiments showed a reduction in pear psylla nymphs on erythritol-treated trees compared with untreated trees, but only if the erythritol was completely dissolved into solution by heating. Laboratory trials confirmed the importance of heating. Results of our experiments demonstrate that erythritol is insecticidal to pear psylla nymphs and adults and provide the first report that erythritol is lethal to a phloem-feeding insect. These findings suggest that erythritol may provide a new safe and effective tool for the management of pear psylla.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America 2020. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.
Katie Wentz, W. Rodney Cooper, David R. Horton, Robert Kao, and Louis B. Nottingham "The Artificial Sweetener, Erythritol, Has Insecticidal Properties Against Pear Psylla (Hemiptera: Psyllidae)," Journal of Economic Entomology 113(5), 2293-2299, (19 June 2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaa124
Received: 3 March 2020; Accepted: 14 May 2020; Published: 19 June 2020
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KEYWORDS
Cacopsylla
erythritol
pear psylla
psyllid
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