Popular sweetener may be safe insecticide

"To which I responded, 'OK...we must have screwed up somehow. Let's repeat the experiment!'"

Under more rigorous testing conditions in the lab, they replicated their result and found that flies raised on food containing Truvia lived for only 5.8 days on average, compared to 38.6 to 50.6 days for flies raised on control and experimental foods without Truvia.

Flies raised on food containing Truvia also showed noticeable motor impairments prior to their deaths, they said. "Indeed what we found is that the main component of Truvia, the sugar erythritol, appears to have pretty potent insecticidal activity in our flies," Marenda said.

"We are not going to see the planet sprayed with erythritol and the chances for widespread crop application are slim," said senior author Sean O'Donnell, a professor of biology and biodiversity, earth and environmental science in Drexel's College of Arts and Sciences. "But on a small scale, in places where insects will come to a bait, consume it and die, this could be huge."