Root Tested as Birth Control for Roaches

A University of California chemist believes the root bark of an African tree may provide a method of birth control for cockroaches.

Isao Kubo hopes that lacing roach food with a chemical called anacardic acid, found in the bark of the msimbwi tree, could be the answer.

“If we can feed it to them, it’s a new way of control,” he said before presenting his findings recently in Miami Beach to a meeting to the American Chemical Society.

Natural Pest-Fighting Tactics

Kubo specializes in using natural pest-fighting tactics of trees and plants.

When the acid is injected into male insects, the substance prevents female mates from producing eggs, he said.

Kubo has used crickets in his experiments, saying they are a very close relative of the cockroach but easier to raise in captivity.

The chemist also thinks the acid may provide Third World nations with a low-cost pesticide for the control of disease-carrying insects.

Kubo said he first discovered the worth of the acid while watching natives dump loads of the fruit from cashew trees into ponds in Kenya. He was told the fruit killed the larvae of mosquitoes and snails.

Kubo brought a sample of the fruit back to Berkeley to analyze and found that the active ingredient is anacardic acid, the same chemical he later isolated in the tree.