Timeline

1600s: Nicotine was used to control plum beetles

1835: Agostine Bassi noted that a fungus (Beauveria bassiana) could cause disease in silkworms

1901: Shigitane Ishitawa isolated Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) from a silkworm

1911: Ernst Berliner isolated Bt from a moth

1920s: French first used Bt as a biopesticide

1938: 1st Bt product, Sporeine, marketed in France

1950s: Bt began to be widely used in the U.S.

1961: 1st biopesticide registered with the EPA: (Bt)

1965: Pacific Yeast Product Company introduced process to mass produce Bt

1973: Heliothis NPV introduced as 1st viral insecticide

1977: Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis introduced to kill flies

1979: EPA registered 1st insect pheromone as a biopeseticide

1983: Tenebrion is introduced to kill beetles

1999: Kaolin clay available as an organic means to repel insects

2008: 245 biopesticides registered with the EPA

1996: First Bt crops developed

2013: 1250 biopesticide products registered with EPA