BRISBANE - An Australian company has developed a biopesticide that uses a virus from farmed infected insects to destroy the main enemy of the cotton plant, the boll weevil. The biopesticide, named Vivus and Australia's first, is based on a naturally occurring live virus that kills only boll weevils, allowing beneficial insects to flourish.

Production involves the farming of insects in insectaries, in which the grubs are fed a special diet of flour, bran and yeast, before being infected with the virus. The makers are secretive about the details of the process but said after the grubs are infected with a low dose of the Nuclearpolyhedrosis virus they are incubated at a very precise temperature for a number of days until they die. Using filtration the virus is extracted from the dead grubs leaving mush that is then mixed with glycerine and water and it is this that is sprayed onto the plants. The processed biopesticide is then sold in 10 litre (2.2 gallon) drums.

Privately owned Ag Biotech has begun producing around 300,000 eggs and 40,000 grubs a day from two insect factories, one in Queensland state and the other in Sydney, New South Wales. The two plants have around five million grubs on hand at any one time. The product is seen replacing imported U.S. product Gemstar, which presented supply problems and was derived from an American rather than the Australian pest, Ag Biotech chairman Jeff Bidstrup said.

Vivus joins only a small number of biopesticides produced in the world. Use of Vivus would allow production of conventional cotton as an adjunct to GM cotton, Bidstrup told Reuters on the sidelines of the 11th Australian Cotton Conference in Brisbane. The market was significant and growing rapidly because of environmental awareness, with Australia one of the main international markets for Gemstar. The import market was usually 150,000-200,000 litres a year worth about A$4 million ($2.16 million), scientist and Ag Biotech co-owner Patrick Buerger said. Vivus, for use mainly on cotton, sorghum and chick pea crops, would help solve an insect problem that cost A$46 million each year in lost agricultural production in Queensland state alone, the company said.

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