Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) and National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru, have jointly developed a sustainable pheromone dispenser with a controlled release rate which could act as an innovative solution to reduce the costs of pest control and management.
Sustainable organic pheromone dispensers are not a new concept. In fact, polymer membrane or polypropylene tube dispensers that release pheromones already dominate the market. The released pheromones alter the behaviour of the target insect species and attract them to sticky traps. Their main drawback, however, is that the rate at which the pheromones are released into the air is not stable. These traps need to be checked and replaced frequently, which drives up costs and increases the amount of manual labour required.
To address this issue, the scientists have come up with a mesoporous silica matrix for their dispenser. This material has an ordered structure with many tiny pores, which allows pheromone molecules to be easily adsorbed and retained uniformly. Not only does mesoporous silica enable a higher holding capacity than other commercial materials, but it also releases the stored pheromone in a much more stable manner that is independent of external conditions, such as field temperature.
Using lures equipped with the proposed pheromone dispenser carries many advantages. First, thanks to the lower and more stable release rate of the loaded pheromone, the intervals between replacements are longer, thereby reducing the farmers’ workload. On top of this, the dispensers can be loaded with a more conservative amount of pheromone, as the condition-independent release rate will ensure they do not run out prematurely.