Advantages of Mating Disruption
Pheromone programs are most effective when controlling low to moderate pest population densities. MD has also been identified as a pest control method in which the insect does not become resistant. The scientific community, together with governmental agencies throughout the world, understands the benefits of mating disruption using species-specific sex pheromones, and consider sex-pheromone-based insect control programs among the most environmentally friendly treatments to be used to manage and control insect pest populations. Insect pheromone has been successfully used as an effective tool to slow the spread and to eradicate pests from very large areas in the US; for example to control the Gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), a devastating forestry pest, and to eradicate the boll weevil and pink bollworm, two of the most damaging pest of cotton. Conventional pesticide based control methods, kill insects directly, whereas mating disruption confuses male insects from accurately locating a mating partner, leading to the eventual collapse of the mating cycle. Mating disruption, due to the specificity of the sex pheromone of the insect species, has the benefit of only affecting the males of that species, while leaving other non target species unaffected. This allows for very targeted pest management, promoting the suppression of a single pest species, leaving the populations of beneficial insects (pollinators and natural enemies) intact. Mating disruption, like most pest management strategies, is a useful technique, but should not be considered a stand-alone treatment program for it targets only a single species in plant production systems that usually have several pests of concern. Mating disruption is a valuable tool that should be used in Integrated Pest Management(IPM) programs.
Pheromone programs have been used for several decades around the globe and to date (2009) there is no documented public health evidence to suggest that agricultural use of synthetic pheromones is harmful to humans or to any other non-target species. However, continuing research is being conducted.
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