By Krishna Ramanujan and Cornell Chronicle
Scientists have resurrected an old device to sniff out the exact scents that attract or repel insects, which could then be developed by companies for growers to purchase and use to trap or ward off such crop-damaging pests.
A Cornell research team is investigating whether the methods could help tackle crop pests such as beetles in vegetables, fruit tree pests including woolly apple aphids, black stem borers and codling moths, and human pests such as mosquitoes.
The device, called an electroantennogram, was invented nearly 70 years ago and used for pioneering pheromone research at Cornell in the 1970s. It allows researchers to identify the exact scent molecules detected by an insect’s antennae. These could include pest-attracting molecules (attractants) found in sex pheromones or fruit odors and in pest deterrents that originate in alarm pheromones and warn of dangers.
“With all the pests and invasive species, the application to agriculture is fundamental to be able to track down pests and monitor their population dynamics,” said Christophe Duplais, associate professor of chemical ecology at Cornell AgriTech and leader of a team developing the electroantennogram for agricultural uses.
In the 1970s, Cornell chemist Wendell Roelofs used an electroantennogram prototype to pioneer insect pheromone research, which led to more than 150 pheromone and attractant discoveries and earned him the 1983 Medal of Science from President Ronald Reagan.
Source : cornell.edu