Canola Oil Biopesticide

Canola oil is a food vegetable oil suitable for use as as a biopesticide. It can be applied to a broad assortment of crops to reduce insect infestations. This oil has no known unfavorable results on people or the environment.

The oil is processed from the seeds of four species of oilseed rape plants, Brassica napus, Brassica juncea, Brassica rapa and Brassica campestris of the family Cruciferae, the mustard family.

Researchers think the oil fights off insects by changing the external form of the leaf cover or by working as a bug irritant.

Plant Coverage

Canola oil can be applied on a broad variety of plants.

Food Plants for Humans

Fruit, including citrus, tree fruit (apples, apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, and prunes), figs, melon, and small fruits (grapes, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, and cranberry)

Vegetables, including corn (field and sweet), sugar beets, asparagus, beans, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, collards, cucurbits, eggplant, lettuce, lima beans, kale, mustard greens, peas, potatoes, peppers, radishes, spinach, squash, and tomatoes

Tree nuts (pecans, almonds) and olives

Soybeans

Animal Feed Plants

Alfalfa forage

Outdoor Residential and Indoor Plants

Bedding plants, ornamental and shade trees, houseplants

Target Pests

There's a wide range of pests that can be controlled with canola oil.

Adelgids, aphids, apple red bugs, asparagus beetles, beetle larvae, blister beetles

Cabbage loopers, cabbage worms, cankerworms, caterpillars, Colorado potato beetles, diamondback moth larvae

Earwigs, flea beetles, fruit tree leafrollers, fungus gnats

Grape phylloxera, gypsy moths, harlequin bugs

Japanese beetles, lace bugs, leaf beetle larvae, leafhoppers, leafminers, leafrollers, Lygus bugs

Mealybugs, Mexican bean beetles, mites, pear psylla, plant bugs (mature and immature), psyllids

Sawfly larvae, scales, spittlebugs, springtails, sowbugs, spotted cucumber beetle, stinkbugs, tent caterpillars, thrips

Webworms, whiteflies

Dangers to the Geographic Area

Injury or death to animals, birds and other land-based organisms does not usually happen due to the low toxicity of canola oil and its rapid decay in the environment.

However, canola cannot be applied to any surface covered with water, as marine organisms can be affected.

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