Monday, April 12, 2010

Why Endosulfan is soft to bees and beneficial insects?

Many species of beneficial insects and bees can detoxify Endosulfan due to Glutathione-S-Transferase (GST) system. This system conjugates the molecule of Endosulfan to glutathione and hence it is not available for binding with the target GABA receptors. Luckily, Glutathione-S-Transferase system has either low or no activity in target pests. Thus, use of Endosulfan presents advantage of being effective to target pest, but at the same time, it is soft to bees and beneficial insects.