{"id":114,"date":"2018-01-26T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susphire.info\/susphireproject\/?page_id=114"},"modified":"2018-06-01T10:53:02","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T10:53:02","slug":"pheromones","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/susphire.info\/susphireproject\/pheromones\/","title":{"rendered":"PHEROMONES"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sex pheromones provide environmentally-friendly alternatives to pesticides for pest management in agriculture<\/h3>\t\t\t

Semiochemicals are substances involved in communication between insects. These include both intraspecific (pheromones) and interspecific (allelochemicals) substances.\u00a0Sex pheromones are species-specific substances of varying chemical structures (either a single molecule or a discrete blend of molecules), generally emitted by females, that elicit a powerful attractant effect and mating stimulus on males.<\/p>\n

Since the discovery of the silkworm sex pheromone in 1959, the identification of chemical signals influencing animal behaviour has advanced enormously. Currently, more than 3,500 semiochemicals have been catalogued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Insect sex pheromones provide sustainable alternatives to conventional pesticides for agricultural pest management. Pesticides are progressively being restricted by European legislation\u00a0due to concerns about negative impacts on biodiversity because, generally, they can kill multiple species including pollinators and other beneficial insects. In contrast, pheromones act only the target species.<\/p>\n

Pheromones are already successfully employed in the control of many lepidopteran and coleopteran species, and several are commercialised by leading companies in the chemical and phytosanitary sectors. Insect sex pheromones are applied in the field using different strategies, depending on the availability of the active substance and whether the final aim is surveillance or protection. The use of pheromones as attractants in insect traps is a common strategy for population monitoring, providing valuable data to inform pest management strategies. This plays a crucial role in the early detection of invasive species, the threat of which is increasing with climate change. Pheromones are also used for crop protection using deployment strategies that efficiently influence population dynamics at large scale:<\/p>\n