The invention involves combining a peptide toxin effective against
insects, including but not limited to thrips, leaf hoppers, and beetles,
with a transport peptide capable of facilitating transfer of the peptide
toxin from the gut of an insect to the hemocoel. The combination can be
effected by a fusion of genetic material encoding the peptide toxin and
the transport peptide, such that expression of the genetic material
fusion results in synthesis of a fusion protein combining the functions
of both the toxin and the transport protein. Ingestion of the fusion
protein by the sucking insect transfers the fusion protein into the
insect's gut from which it is transferred into the hemocoel due to the
functional activity of the transport peptide where the toxin exerts its
toxic effect upon the insect. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is
effective in control of such sucking insects as aphids, whiteflies and
the like, and other vectors that transmit viruses in a circulative
manner.