Farmers use soft drinks to kill pests

Cotton farmers in some Indian villages are flocking to buy Coca-Cola and Pepsi, believing that the sugar in the fizzy drinks kills pests.

Farmers say agriculture officials originally advised them to mix pesticides with sugar syrup to control pests, but they found the cola mixture cheaper and more effective although both soft drink makers and scientists dismissed the claims.

"The pests became numb and fell to ground," a farmer from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh said. He said the drinks had all the elements they needed: they were cheaper, sticky, fizzy, and attracted ants, which devoured the larvae of the pests.