For Pest Management Biopesticides are quickly emerging as important tools in reducing pesticide use and risk. Pesticide users have expressed such interest in these pesticides that EPA created a special division called the Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention Division, to speed up the registration of biopesticides. There are two types of biopesticides, biochemical and microbial. Biochemical pesticides are structurally similar to, and functionally identical to, a naturally occurring counterpart, and have a nontoxic mode of action. An example of a biochemical pesticide includes pheromones.
Pheromones are naturally-occurring chemicals that insects use to find mates.
Chemically synthesized pheromones can disrupt insect mating by creating confusion during the search for mates, or by attracting insects to traps. Microbial pesticides are naturally-occurring or genetically altered bacteria, fungi, algae, viruses, or protozoans that suppress pests by either producing a toxin specific to the pest, causing disease, preventing establishment of pest microorganisms through competition, or other modes of action. B.t. is applied foliarly, or incorporated into the genetic material or crops, including B.t. corn and B.t. cotton. About 10-14 million acres of B.t. In 1997, growers planted approximately 2 million acres of B.t. cotton.