All thanks to a Pennsylvania ninth grader, the world now knows that the popular sugar substitute Truvia kills fruit flies. Simon Kaschock-Marenda, 14, became interested in artificial sweeteners back in sixth grade after his parents switched from real sugar. When he did some amateur experiments and found that Truvia was killing flies, Kaschock-Marenda got his dad (a biologist at Drexel University) involved.
The duo performed a more official study, which was published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. They found that fruit flies consuming food mixed with Truvia die in an average of six days, whereas flies that ate other sweeteners lived for around 45 days.
Don't misunderstand: The component found in Truvia that is responsible for fly deaths is actually safe for humans. Erythrital is a sugar alcohol and there is no evidence that it has a negative effect on people. So it looks like teenager Kaschock-Marenda may have stumbled across a nontoxic, natural insecticide.
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