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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Researchers aim for natural & effective alternatives to insecticides
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:02
	Publish Date:		2016-02-09 00:00:00
	Description:		Insects destroy billions of dollars of agriculture each year, which can result in heavy insecticide use on crops. But University of California, Riverside entomologist Anandasankar Ray hopes that practice might soon be weeded out. "And what we are trying to develop now, is a sort of strategy to see whether we can impact agriculture so that they can reduce their dependency on toxic chemicals." Ray’s lab is seeking healthy, natural alternatives to insecticides and bug repellants like DEET. "That would be kind of a dream come true, if we could create a product that is affordable, washable, safe, that smells nice and yet protects the fruit, and we are not worried about consuming." The lab has identified various substitutes that repel insects based on odors - basically creating a disgust factor for pests. "We will continually improve upon these active ingredients that we found. It’s not a stagnant process."
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