Insects are the most diverse Class of life on earth, and different insects can be essential for, or highly damaging to, agriculture, horticulture and forestry. There is a pressing need, not just for new insecticides to combat resistance, but more specific, “greener” insecticides that target deleterious insects while sparing beneficial ones. This proposal aims to identify such insecticides by turning the insects’ own hormones against them, both by designing artificial neuropeptide “mimetic” analogs as candidate compounds, and by generating transgenic insects that carry deleterious neuropeptide payloads within them, that can propagate through a population and impact on survival at times of stress.