Kid Scientist Finds Sweet Pest Control

This is Scientific American 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This'll just take a minute.
You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
But if you want to kill them, you might try Truvia.
Because a new study shows that the active ingredient in this popular sweetener can act as an insecticide.
The study began as a sixth-grade science-fair project.
Eleven-year-old Simon Kaschock-Marenda noticed that his parents had stopped using sugar.
So he decided to see how different sweeteners affect the health of fruit flies.
He and his dad, a card-carrying biologist, offered the flies food spiked with a variety of no-cal sweeteners.
Six days into the experiment all the Truvia-fed flies were dead,
while those stuck with Sweet-n-low, Splenda or Equal lived five to seven weeks.
Why Truvia makes flies drop like flies is still a mystery.
Back in the lab, the researchers confirmed that the bugs weren't starving: they all continued to eat.
Most actually seemed to prefer Truvia to real sugar when offered a choice, findings published in the journal PLoS One.
Next, the researchers will see if the sweetener kills other bugs, like cockroaches or ants.
Until then, try tossing a little Truvia in your coffee, and on the counter.
Thanks for the minute, for Scientific American 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.