Pheromones for Insect Control: Strategies and Successes

There is general agreement among government agencies, research institutions, industry, grower organizations, and the public that there is a need to reduce reliance on broad-spectrum insecticides by acceleratmg efforts to incorporate ecologically sound technologies into agricultural pest-management programs. The development and implementation of pest control technology based on behavior-controlling chemicals, or semiochemicals, offers a unique opportunity to move in this direction. Semiochemicals are chemical messages that organisms use to communicate with each other. Among the semiochemicals, insect sex pheromones have probably recerved the most attention from the scientific, regulatory, and agricultural communities. Sex pheromones are chemical messages between individuals of the same species, which faciliate mating. By their nature, pheromones are highly specific and then use for insect control would not disrupt other biological interactions within a cropping system.