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Genetically Engineered Pesticides Genetically engineered pesticides have been created with the purpose of killing insects that destroy crops by the use of microbial pathogens. Plants have also been genetically engineered to produce toxic proteins themselves, without needing pesticides. An example of this is the baculovirus which, like other genetically engineered pesticides, gets a gene inserted into it (by the use of restriction enzymes that splice DNA and allow genes to be added to the sticky ends) that encodes for a toxin specific to the insects it is trying to eliminate which in this case are bollworms and budworms. It uses a toxin found in scorpions and doesn’t harm humans or wildlife. The sticky ends base pair with the complementary sticky ends of the scorpion DNA fragment.