University of California, Davis, scientists are redirecting their research after a professor's son discovered that a major agricultural pest prefers pistachios over other nuts.
The sixth-grader's experiment showed that female navel orangeworms preferred to lay their eggs in pistachios rather than almonds or walnuts, and researchers now are trying to use the information to better control the pests, according to the California Farm Bureau.
Gabriel Leal, an 11-year-old student at Willet Elementary School in Davis, thinks pistachios taste better and theorized that navel orangeworms share his preference.
So in September, he text-messaged his father, Walter Leal, a chemical ecologist and professor of entomology at UC Davis, who was in his native Brazil at an entomology conference.
Gabriel told his dad he wanted to do a science project based on the hypothesis that the navel orangeworm would lay more eggs in pistachios than in almonds or walnuts.
That's counter to past research, including a report recently published in the California Agriculture journal, which indicates the pest prefers almonds.
Gabriel conducted his research in his father's UC Davis lab under the voluntary supervision of Zain Syed, a chemical ecologist.
Gabriel placed egg-filled females in a cage with four navel orangeworm traps – one filled with 50 grams of shelled pistachios, one with 50 grams of almonds, one with 50 grams of walnuts and a fourth empty one to serve as the control.
The eggs laid in the traps were counted for two consecutive nights. The female navel orangeworms preferred pistachios over the other nuts.
"The results shocked us," Syed said in a release issued by UC Davis.
Walter Leal reported the findings at the state almond industry conference last month in Modesto.
Researchers and growers typically use traps baited with a mix of almond meal and almond oil to attract the pests in the field. But the chemical from the real almond crop competes with the synthetic material in the traps, Leal said. If pistachios are used in the almond fields, it could eliminate the problem.
The navel orangeworm is considered a major pest of almonds and pistachios because the larvae feed directly on nut meats, making them unsuitable for sale.
Walter Leal, who led groundbreaking research that determined mosquitoes can smell the repellant DEET and avoid it because it smells bad, said science should never underestimate an idea.
Call The Bee's Niesha Lofing, (916) 321-1270.
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