Application of Insect Pheromone

1
Application of Insect Pheromone
2
Introduction

• Insect pheromones are extremely trace amounts of
  chemicals secreted by insect-specific glands, and
  are the medium for chemical communication between
  insects. Many insect life activities such as
  mating, host orientation and selection,
  identification of spawning sites, alerting, and
  defense are regulated by their chemical
  information. Synthetic insect pheromones are also
  called insect behavior modifiers. Generally,
  these synthetic insect pheromones cannot directly
  kill the pests, but achieve the purpose of
  controlling pests by interfering with the
  insect's normal behaviors such as mating
  behavior, spawning behavior, feeding behavior,
  assembly behavior, self-defense behavior, etc.
  With the deepening of the understanding of the
  mechanism of chemical information connection
  between organisms, the use of insect pheromones
  to change and disrupt the normal life activities
  of pests has opened a new way for pest control.

3
Research progress of insect pheromone

• The most studied insect pheromones are sex
  pheromones, cluster pheromones, spawning
  attractants, kairomone, and so on. Insect
  pheromones require comprehensive research in
  multiple disciplines including entomology,
  chemistry, ecology, physiology, biochemistry,
  behavior, etc. Insect pheromone biological
  research includes the courtship and mating
  behavior of insects, the morphology and
  ultrastructure of glands that secrete pheromones,
  and the sex pheromone biosynthesis and endocrine
  regulation. The first issue in insect pheromone
  chemistry research is to understand the chemical
  structure and composition of these pheromones.
  Due to the small content of these substances and
  their complex components, it is not easy to
  understand their structure and composition. The
  initial test subjects may require hundreds of
  thousands of insects. Later, due to the
  introduction of high-sensitivity analytical
  instruments, the number of insects used in the
  analysis was reduced to hundreds or even dozens.
  In order for insect pheromones to function
  properly when applied in the field and to be
  released into space at a certain rate, it is
  necessary to have various slow-release
  formulation. The most commonly used slow-release
  formulations use natural rubber or plastic as a
  carrier. Researching effective pest control
  technologies that have no side effects on the
  environment, humans and animals is an important
  basis for establishing a comprehensive pest
  management system.

4
Application of pheromone in pest control

• The purpose of controlling pests can be achieved
  by preventing food search, intra-specific contact
  and reproduction of pests, and promoting the
  breeding of natural enemies of pests. Insect
  attractants used for pest monitoring have the
  advantages of high sensitivity, strong
  specificity, and low cost. More than 100
  commercial insect attractants have been used for
  pest detection. Generally, 3-5 traps are hung at
  each measurement point, and the number of lure
  moths is recorded daily. According to the number
  of adult worms monitored, the number of eggs, the
  number of larvae, and other control thresholds
  can be used to decide whether or not to spray and
  optimum spraying period. A large number of traps
  can be used to capture part of the male moth, so
  that the female moth has no chance of mating,
  thereby reducing the pest density. For this
  method to be effective, 85 to 90 of the male
  moths need to be trapped, so a certain number of
  traps are required. If the pest density is too
  high, the trapping method will be difficult to
  work. At this time, other methods must be used to
  reduce the pest density before using the trapping
  method. It is also possible to reduce the density
  of pests by setting a large number of sex
  attractant dispensers or spraying sex
  attractants. This method allows the scent of
  sexual attractants to be emitted into the air to
  disrupt insect activity and reduces the chance of
  pest mating, thereby reducing pest density. The
  amount of sexual attractant to be used in this
  method is relatively large, and 1500-7500
  dispensers or 30-75 grams of sustained-release
  dosage forms need to be set per hectare, which is
  very costly. And for some insects, if the
  pheromone dose exceeds the optimal threshold, the
  number of trapped pests will decrease. For
  example, when the pheromone content is in the
  range of 0.5-200 micrograms, the core trap of
  diploid pupae will be attractive to male moths,
  but when the pheromone content is in the range of
  25-75 micrograms, the number of captured male
  moth reaches the maximum.

5
Conclusion

• Insect pheromones are highly specialized, do not
  harm natural enemies of pests, have no side
  effects on the environment, and are easy to use.
  Since artificial insect pheromone can be
  synthesized in large quantities at low cost, it
  can be used as an effective tool for controlling
  pests. However, some biological characteristics
  and external environmental factors related to
  insect information links have limited the
  application of insect pheromones to a certain
  extent. Populations of the same species in
  different geographies, or different individuals
  in the same population may form different
  pheromone communication systems during the
  evolution process. Therefore, insect pheromones
  are mainly used for pest monitoring at the
  present stage. And under certain conditions,
  pheromones can be applied in combination with
  other measures. For example, using pesticides to
  reduce the density of pests, and then using
  pheromones to interfere with and trap the pests.