Content Cow

Welcome Guest

Give Your Articles

Use Our Articles

Information

Categories

36 users online.

Navigation: Home » Formatnewsletter » Format Article for Newsletter

Newsletter Article

Here is Learning the Chemistry of Phermones and Pesticides formatted for a newsletter with 65 characters per line.

Return to Learning the Chemistry of Phermones and Pesticides

Learning the Chemistry of Phermones and Pesticides

by batoujitsu

The exquisite specificity of insects chemical language is not
surprising, considering that it is often the only means insects
have for finding each other. Researchers have now broken the code
for the pheromone communication of more than 1,600 insects. In so
doing they have found that pheromones serve many more purposes
than simply attracting mates.

As already discussed, Pheromones are powerful sex attractants.
Till now hundreds of pheromones are known with which one sex
(usually the female) of an insect species attracts its mates.
Many of these sex attractants (Pheromones) - or their close
chemical relatives - are available commercially and these are
proved very effective as Pesticides against many pests in two
ways:

1) Male Confusion

Distributing a pheromone throughout an area masks the insect's
own sex attractant and thus may prevent the sexes getting
together. The male cannot find the respective female for more
than hundred days and hence the offspring rate reduces
extensively. This "communication disruption" has been used
successfully against a wide variety of important pests. For
example, the sex attractant of the cotton boll weevil has reduced
the need for conventional chemical insecticides by more than half
in some cotton-growing areas.

2)Insect Monitoring

Insect Pheromones are also valuable in monitoring pest
populations. By baiting traps with the appropriate pheromone, a
build-up of the pest population can be spotted early. Even if a
conventional insecticide is the weapon chosen, its early use
reduces

-  the amount needed
-  damage to the crop
-  cost to the grower
-  possible damage to the environment.

Early detection of pest build-up is a key ingredient in the
system known as integrated pest management (IPM).            The
feathery antennae of a male gypsy moth, will detect the
pheromones released by the females (who do not fly). It is not
necessary that pheromones should be present in very high
concentration.

Pheromones can be highly effective at low doses and great
distances. In some insects, a single molecule of pheromone is
enough to elicit a response. Detection of just 30 pheromone
molecules can prompt a response in cockroaches. In less than five
days a single caged female pine sawfly attracted more than 11,000
males from the field.

From a pest management standpoint, pheromones are a critical key
to manipulating insect behaviors. Usage of pheromones as pest
control was under practice since a long time. But a scientific
approach towards it has now proven effective since it is more
eco-friendly, cost effective, less expensive, user friendly and
also does not harm the pest. It just will make them stay away
from each other so they do not mate and hence they do not
reproduce and spoil the crops and there by prevent the commercial
loss.

Though there are many pheromones available for controlling
pests, still it has not reached the farmers. The farmers have to
be well educated about the uses of theses pheromones and their
cost effectiveness and thus spread the "scent of Eros" everywhere
for its maximum benefits.

<a href="http://phermonesguide.blogspot.com/">Phermones Guide
Blog </a> is a one stop resource for everything about pheromones.
 Please visit the site at http://phermonesguide.blogspot.com

Syndicated by Content Cow - www.contentcow.biz

	Quick Search:
Home \| Submit an Article \| Advanced Search \| Grab an RSS Feed