Pheromones and kairomones for control of stored product pests

The objective is to increase and use the knowledge about the chemical communication system of the insects in order to develop economically efficient and environmentally acceptable monitoring and suppression methods for pest insects in food industry.

Background. Insect damage has in all times been a large problem for cereal storage, both in homes and in industrial buildings. Several chemical insecticides have been or will be banned for health or environmental reasons. This means that insect problems can be expected to increase, and new, efficient, but environmentally friendly, methods have to be developed.

Pheromones. In food factories, with strong hygiene regulations, it is important to detect occurrence of insects as soon as possible. A very effective method is to use traps, baited with the sex pheromone of the target insects, to capture them. Within the project the chemical communication of three common moth species are studied, the Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella), the Mediterranean flour moth (Ephestia kuehniella) and the almond moth (Ephestia cautella), in order to optimise the attractive blend. The pheromone of the confused flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) is also investigated for development of more efficient traps. The same pheromones can be used for direct population control and attempts with both mating disruption and "attract & kill" are in progress. In mating disruption synthetic mimics of the female sex pheromone are released in the room, making it difficult for the males to find the females, because the female odour is present everywhere. In "a & k" the males are attracted to pheromone baits combined with a poison. The poison might be a chemical insecticide or an insect pathogen that kills the attracted males. This method requires much less toxic substance than conventional spraying and, in addition, the poison can be removed after the use.

Food odours. When female insects lay their eggs it is important to place them on, or close to, food suitable for the larvae. To find a suitable place she mainly uses odour cues. This attraction to food odours could possibly be used for catching females, which would make control efforts more efficient. Within the project attempts are made to identify the attractive food compounds for the different species. For the almond moth it is also possible to catch mated females (as well as males) with pure water.

Applications. The optimised pheromone baits should make monitoring of insect occurrence more efficient. By combining different methods, depending on which species that are present, odour-based population suppression might become a key strategy for controlling insects in food.

Place of research: The Pheromone Group, Section of chemical ecology and ecotoxicology, Department of Ecology, Lund University

Participating scientists: Christer Löfstedt and Olle Anderbrant (project leaders), Erling Jirle, Karin Johnson, Christian Olsson, Camilla Ryne, Glenn Svensson (until 2003) och Peter Valeur (until 2000).

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