BIOTECHNOLOGICAL CONTROL
Biotechnological control consists in the application of effective pest control practices, which are sustainable and sensitive with the environment. One of these biotechnological techniques is the use of synthetic insect pheromones.
The advantages of pheromone-based biotechnological pest management systems include the following:
-Negligible health risks to grower and consumer
-Environmentally friendly
-No detectable residues
-They can be used by both organic and conventional growers
-No resistance to the pheromone itself
-Highly selective to the pest species
-No harmful effect on biological control agents
-Nontarget effects are not seen the treated field
What is pheromone?
Pheromones are the chemical substances that emitted by an organism that influences the behavior of the same species. Each insect species has its own chemically distinct pheromone. Sex pheromones are chemical signal molecules to attract their mating partners. The female insects emit sex pheromones and the male insects can detect and follow to locate the female.
Use of pheromones in insect pest management
Synthetic pheromones are similar to those which are naturally produced by one species of individual insect to attract the other individual of the same species. These insect sex pheromones are being commercially used for monitoring the insect populations.
Generally sex pheromones can be used in three principal ways;
-Monitoring: The principle use of insect pheromones is to attract insects to traps for detection and determination of numerical trend in the population. The information from trap catches can be very helpful for decision making on insecticide applications or other control measures.
-Mating disruption: Sex pheromone can be used for disruption of mating. The high concentration of pheromone saturates the field resulting in males failing to find females, thus preventing mating and reproduction of the pest.
-Mass trapping: High density of sex pheromone baited traps is placed in the crop and capture male insect continuously, thus preventing mating and reproduction of the pest.