ENVIRONMENT WATCH : Getting the Bugs Out

The Medfly helicopters have not been sold for scrap yet, but that happy day may be on its way.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of clearing a genetically engineered pesticide for market that could one day lead to chemical-free farming.

Learning to improve on a 20-year-old process that uses a natural bacterium that kills bugs the way germs kill animals was the first small step.

Now farmers must be persuaded that the new biopesticide is effective. That, of course, means battling big chemical companies on turf they staked out decades ago.

But Mycogen Corp., the San Diego company that spent six years figuring out how to make the biopesticide last longer than a few hours in the open air, is ready to do battle.

The EPA has analyzed just two bug killers. MVP kills caterpillars that attack lettuce and other vegetables. M-TRAK kills a beetle that eats potatoes and tomatoes.

What is new about Mycogen’s new products is that they keep their punch after they are applied to crops five to six times as long as similar products now on the market. Company scientists developed a way to put bacteria in capsules that keep toxins from dissipating until an insect swallows the capsule.

It also may not be as tough as it once was to break into the chemical dominance in agriculture. A carcinogen scare some years ago involving Alar, a pesticide used on apples, and the furor in recent years over spraying in urban areas to protect citrus trees from the Medfly may have made farmers more willing to try alternatives.