Pheromones against crop pests. Free Technical Library News

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Pheromones against crop pests

11.12.2022

The main harm to agriculture is caused by a butterfly called cotton scoop. It devours about 1/5 of all crops grown, but scientists from Lund University have figured out how to deal with it.

Female insects can attract mates in complete darkness without any sound signal and at a distance of hundreds of meters using sex pheromones.

Males track the smell of these chemical signals and mate with females, who then lay eggs. After that, hungry larvae hatch, destroying crops.

"We can use artificial pheromone compounds in the field that will spread all over the air and override the original signal from a real female," explained Hong-Lei Wang, a researcher on the pheromone group at Lund University in Sweden.

This sheer sheath of sexual odor makes it harder for males to find females and mate, and so the insect population is declining, meaning there are fewer pests in the area that can damage crops.

Experts have already isolated the necessary chemical elements from oilseeds and tested their development, comparing its effectiveness with synthetic pheromones that are used in agriculture.

Until now, the costs of these substances have limited their widespread use. The creation of artificial pheromones was quite expensive, so they were used only when it was cost-effective - for example, to protect fruits.

But now Wang and his colleagues have discovered a way to produce pheromones in an affordable and sustainable way. They also tested their development in the fields. Over time, the number of male cutworms in the territories treated with pheromones has significantly decreased. This indicates the high efficiency of the new method.

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