Pesticides News and Research

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Bats Use Insect Migrations to Refuel Their Journeys

University of Exeter scientists identified seven bat species and 66 insect species (90% of which were moths) in the Pass of Bujaruelo, near Spain's border with France.

17 Aug 2023

Maize Root Chemicals Can Increase Wheat Yields by 4%

Maize roots secrete certain chemicals that affect the quality of soil. In some fields, this effect increases yields of wheat planted subsequent to maize in the same soil by more than 4%.

14 Aug 2023

Bat Activity Falls as Farms Make the Transition to Organic Agriculture, Finds Study

Bat activity falls as farms make the transition to organic agriculture, new research shows.

21 Jul 2023

Bee Protective Pesticide Mitigation Measures Need Stronger Scientific Evidence

Responsible use of pesticides includes striving to avoid negative effects on the environment, often with an emphasis on protecting bees and other pollinators.

18 Jul 2023

Genome of Xerces Blue Butterfly Reveals Extinction Story

The Xerces Blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces) was native to the coastal dunes of San Francisco, in the United States. As the city grew, much of the butterfly's habitat was destroyed and its population was relegated to Golden Gate National Park.

12 Jul 2023

Triazoles: A Threat to Wild Birds

According to new research, wild birds living in vineyards are more vulnerable to triazole fungicide contamination than other agricultural landscapes.

5 Jul 2023

Omega-3 Rich Oil Shows Promise in Protecting Honey Bees from Neonicotinoids

New research suggests that the use of an omega-3 rich oil called "ahiflower oil" can prevent damage to honey bee mitochondria caused by neonicotinoid pesticides.

5 Jul 2023

CSIRO Invests $25 Million to Drive Biotech Innovation

Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has invested $25 million up to 2027 in a new program that will harness the building blocks of life to solve intractable problems.

7 Jun 2023

New Technique Could be a Game-Changer in the Management of Crop Loss to Mice Plague

A non-toxic method to prevent mice from devouring wheat crops has been shown to drastically reduce seed loss.

1 Jun 2023

Investigating the Toxic Effects of Pesticides on Marine Microalgae

Significant volumes of pesticides are used in present agricultural systems for specialized goals like weeding and insecticide, and most pesticides end up in the ocean.

19 May 2023

Genomics Surveillance of Wheat Blast Fungus may be an Effective Disease Management Tool

Pests and diseases may reduce global wheat yields by over 20%. A study published April 11th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Sergio Latorre at University College London, UK and colleagues suggest that genomic surveillance may be an effective disease management tool with the ability to trace lineages of emerging crop diseases, and to identify genetic traits for breeding disease-resistant lines.

18 Apr 2023

Research Proposes a Totally New Way to Think About Agriculture

On November 15, 2022, the 8 billionth person on the planet was born. With concerns about food security on the rise, experts are asking: how will we feed everyone? Climate change, natural resource depletion, soil erosion, and fossil fuel use in farming make the task even more challenging. We need to do something differently, but what?

13 Apr 2023

Novel Way of Collecting Highly Detailed Information About Organic Tissues

An innovative technology created by USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience researchers proposes a new way of acquiring and arranging highly comprehensive information about organic tissues in record time.

5 Apr 2023

Pesticide residues in water test kit for sustainable and safe agriculture

Farmers in Thailand still largely use chemical herbicides, especially paraquat and atrazine, to control weeds on their farms. According to research by the Office of Agricultural Economics, in 2019, Thailand imported almost 10 million kilograms of paraquat and close to 3.5 million kilograms of atrazine.

23 Mar 2023

Deactivating mosquito sperm to control populations of Culex

New UC Riverside research makes it likely that proteins responsible for activating mosquito sperm can be shut down, preventing them from swimming to or fertilizing eggs.

22 Mar 2023

Including more women in decision-making could help farmers improve conservation and production

When a family of five-ton elephants stomps and chomps its way through your crops, there's only one winner. And in the central African nation of Gabon, farmers are getting fed up with the giant animals trampling their fields-;and their livelihoods.

21 Mar 2023

SMART researchers develop the world's first microneedle-based drug delivery technique for plants

Researchers from the Disruptive & Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, and their collaborators from Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have developed the first-ever microneedle-based drug delivery technique for plants.

14 Mar 2023

Demonstrating the effects of wildflowers on the health and reproduction rate of bumblebees

University of Massachusetts Amherst biologist Lynn Adler has won the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize for her research demonstrating that different kinds of wildflowers can have markedly different effects on the health and reproduction rate of bumblebees.

14 Mar 2023

Scientists discover mechanism behind how plants can develop long-term immunity to stress

A mechanism behind how plants can develop long-term immunity to stress has been discovered by scientists at the University of Sheffield.

8 Mar 2023

Study shows how pesticides render certain strawberries bland

Have you ever bitten into a plump, red strawberry, only to find it bland and watery? Certain pesticides might be responsible. A team reporting in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found that two common strawberry fungicides can impact cellular mechanisms, creating berries with subdued flavor and sweetness, as well as a lower nutritional value.

28 Feb 2023