ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,279,611, issued on April 22, was assigned to BASF SE (Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany).

"Method for controlling insects where an alkoxylated glycerol is applied to soil" was invented by Wen Xu (Research Triangle Park, N.C.), James W. Austin (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) and Michael Krapp (Limburgerhof, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Described herein is a method for controlling insects where a composition including an insecticide and a polymer are applied to soil, where the polymer is formed from an initiator and a plurality of C2 to C6 alkylene oxide units, and where the initiator is an aliphatic polyol with at least three hydroxy...