Erick Martinez Rodriguez and his novel research is featured in story a by OSU News journalist Tatyana Woodall, woodall.52@osu.edu, on September 18th. The news article, "Hemp shows high promise as potential natural insecticide" details the quest to find natural mosquito insecticides and repellents undertaken by the Dr. Peter Piermarini research lab. This work was recently published in the prestigious scientific journal, Insects, and was supported by the Infectious Diseases Institute and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at Ohio State. Other Ohio State co-authors include fellow CFAES entomology department members Larry Phelan, Luis Canas, and Nuris Acosta, and Harinantenaina L. Rakotondraibe from the College of Pharmacy.
The study, published in the journal Insects, found that hemp leaf extract – which contains the active ingredient cannabidiol, or CBD – kills mosquito larvae from two different strains of the yellow fever mosquito within 48 hours, one that was resistant to typical insecticides and another that was not.
“Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world, mainly because as adults they serve as vectors of disease,” said Erick Martinez Rodriguez, lead author of the study and a graduate student in entomology at The Ohio State University. “It’s very important to be able to control these pests at an early stage, when they are at the most vulnerable.”
Click on the following link to read the OSU news article: https://news.osu.edu/hemp-shows-high-promise-as-potential-natural-insecticide/