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Use of Synthetic Pheromones



One popular use of synthetic pheromones is for pest management. Scientists use methods such as pest monitoring, mass trapping, lure and kill, and mating disruption to determine valuable information about pests, the dangers they pose to crops, and how to solve the pest problem.

Pest monitoring is used to determine the purpose for which a certain system of pest removal is to be used. Some factors that are considered in these decisions include scientific factors and commercial factors. Other important components of monitoring systems include the attractant source, the trap and where to place it, and sufficient knowledge of the pest biology to interpret the catches. The attractant source is made up of the active ingredient and its controlled release device. The trap design is just the basic structure of the trap itself and it includes designs such as sticky plates, tent traps, wing traps, funnel traps, and milk carton traps. The three important factors of trap placement are its height, position with respect to vegetation, and the trap density. Some applications of pest monitoring traps are listed in the table below. (Insect Pheromones and Their Use in Pest Management, 1998, 263-271)


Figure from Insect Pheromones and Their Use in Pest Management, 1998, 264


Mass trapping involves placing a high density of traps in the crop to be protected to remove a high proportion of individuals from the population. However, lack of attraction of females to the attractant source, lack of efficient traps, high insect populations and trap saturation, and a need for high density traps per unit of surface area (aka cost) make mass trapping difficult. It is commonly used on fruit flies, moths, and beetles. (Insect Pheromones and Their Use in Pest Management, 1998, 280)

Lure and kill techniques are very similar to mass trapping, except once the insect is attracted to the semiochemical lure, it is subjected to a killing or sterilizing agent instead of being trapped. It is also known as attracticide and attraction-annihilation. Lure and kill consists of two components, the lure and the affector. The lure consists of odours, visual cues, or both and the affector eliminates the insect from the population. Below is a table of some common lures and and affectors used. Lure and kill uses target devices, including physical traps and sprayable formulations, which use pheromones that are released from planes and are slowly released. It is mainly used on fruit flies, house flies, and tsetse flies.(Insect Pheromones and Their Use in Pest Management, 1998, 300-305)


Figure from Insect Pheromones and Their Use in Pest Management, 1998, 301


Mating disruption is the use of pheromones to try and minimize or prevent egg laying by females. This is done by interfering with the mating behavior processes between males and females. Controlled release chemicals are used before the onset of pest activity and they are released in small amounts for weeks or months. This strategy has become so successful that it is now used in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. The three major strategies of mating disruption are confusion, trail-masking, and false-trail following. Confusion is caused by the constant exposure of males to a high concentration of pheromone fog, which causes adaptation of the antennal receptors and habituation of the central nervous system. This prevents the male from responding to normal levels of the pheromone released by females. Trail-masking is using a synthetic pheromone to destroy the pheromone trail layed by the females. False-trail following is laying numerous spots of synthetic pheromone in high concentrations to present the insect with many false trails to follow. It is dependent mainly upon the number and intensity of the pheromone dispensers. It took many years to develop environmentally safe controls that did not have severe effects on other species, but scientists have now achieved relatively successful and specific chemicals. Mating disruption is used for insect pests of cotton, rice, forest insects, and fruit and vegetable pests.(Insect Pheromones and Their Use in Pest Management, 1998, 314-338)

As mentioned in the section entitled Development of Synthetic Pheromones, another popular use for synthetic pheromones today is for human sexual attraction. Dr. Cutler was one of the original discoverers and marketers of synthetic human pheromones for sexual attraction, but today more and more advertisements are popping up in magazines and on television that are trying to sell them. Producers are selling these "synthetic pheromones" in colognes, perfumes and even "pure" in the bottles. They're even trying to use catchy phrases to lure in the consumers. Some examples of these include "Want to attract that special someone?" "Interested in a little extra edge in business affairs?" "Ever wonder why some people seem to have it all?" "Attract men or women fast!" The question do human pheromones actually attract other people and if so do these synthetic phermones actually imitate the effect of the real human pheromones?

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