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Bacillus thuringiensis is a Gram-positive bacterium that produces crystalline endotoxins and is widely considered an environmentally safe insecticide to control mosquitoes and a number of agriculture pests. Bacteria closely related to B. thuringiensis have recently been discovered in association with diseased sponges, which has raised concerns that Bacillus insecticides may be harmful to tropical marine invertebrates. We exposed coral larvae and juvenile corals to the insecticides VectoBac® G (containing B. thuringiensis israelensis) and VectoLex® G (containing B. sphaericus). VectoBac G and VectoLex G had no effect on the survival and metamorphosis of Acropora millepora and A. tenuis larvae at very high concentrations (5000 µg l–1). The juvenile corals of the same species were also unaffected after 4 sequential 48 h exposures to B. thuringiensis israelensis and B. sphaericus at different stages of …