Juvenile Hormone - Use As An Insecticide

Use As An Insecticide

Synthetic analogues of the juvenile hormone are used as an insecticide, preventing the larvae from developing into adult insects. JH itself is expensive to synthesize and is unstable in light. At high levels of JH, larva can still molt, but the result will only be a bigger larva, not an adult. Thus the insect's reproductive cycle is broken. One JH analogue, methoprene, is approved by the WHO for use in drinking water cisterns to control mosquito larvae.