Using Sex Appeal to Fight a Pest

Using Sex Appeal to Fight a Pest
A case study of how scientists in the Pacific Northwest controlled an outbreak of moths in poplar trees. Transcript of radio broadcast:
19 February 2008

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Back in the year two thousand, big producers of poplar trees in the American Pacific Northwest needed help. Their hybrid poplars, nearly ten years old, were under threat. Young insects were getting into the heartwood, weakening a tree and making it likely to break and fall. Small, newly planted trees were being killed.

Two professors from Washington State University discovered that the threat was not from traditional poplar pests but from a new one.

Doug Walsh and John Brown found ninety-five western poplar clearwing moths in traps in a four-week period in two thousand one. Then, during a four-week period in two thousand two, they found more than eighteen thousand moths in traps placed in the same locations.

Unlike most moths, this one is active during the day. As a defense, it can make itself look like a yellow jacket.

It was a threat to fourteen thousand hectares of poplar planted in eastern Washington state and Oregon. The producers used twenty thousand kilograms of a pesticide, Lorsban, in two thousand two to try to control the outbreak. But that and other poisons failed to stop the moths.

So the professors asked for help from an expert at the University of California, Riverside. Years earlier, Jocelyn Millar had copied the sex pheromone of the clearwing moth.

Pheromones produce chemical signals that animals and insects use to identify friends and enemies. Pheromones also attract the opposite sex. The Washington State team had used Jocelyn Millar's version of the pheromone in the traps.

The researchers began treating poplars with the synthetic pheromone in two thousand three. The idea was to confuse male moths. They would sense the presence of females and not be able to find them, and that would interfere with reproduction.

After the success of tests, and improvements to the treatment, it won full approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. That was in two thousand six.

Professor Brown says the synthetic pheromone is safe so workers can re-enter a forest after a few hours. And only small amounts are needed -- as little as one gram per two and a half hectares. Professor Walsh says the treatment reduces clearwing moth populations quickly. Today, the population is under control, but preventive treatments continue.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson.

----------------------------Google Translate


用性上诉，以共同对抗虫害
个案研究的科学家如何在太平洋西北地区控制了疫情的蛾类杨树。全文电台广播：
2008年2月19日

这是美国之音特别英语农业部报告。

早在一年2000 ，大制作的杨树在美国太平洋西北地区需要帮助的。其杂交杨树，近10岁，均受到威胁。年轻昆虫进入心，削弱了一棵树上，它有可能打破，秋两季。小，新种植的树木被杀害。

两位教授从华盛顿州立大学发现了这一炸弹威胁不是来自传统的杨树病虫害但是，从一个新的密码。

道格沃尔什和约翰布朗发现95西方杨树clearwing蛾类陷阱，在4个星期内， 2000一。然后，在四个星期内， 2000两年，他们发现了超过1.8万的蛾类陷阱放置在同一地点。

不同于大多数蛾类，这个人是活跃在白天进行。作为防御，它可以使自己看起来就像是一个黄色夹克。

这是一个威胁14000公顷杨树种植在东部地区，华盛顿州和俄勒冈州。生产者使用20000公斤的农药， lorsban ，在2000两，设法控制疫情。但和其他毒药未能阻止飞蛾。

因此，教授们要求协助，从一个专家，在美国加州大学河滨。几年前， jocelyn米勒曾抄袭性信息素的clearwing蛾。

费洛蒙的化学信号，即动物和昆虫用来确定系统的朋友和敌人。信息素，也可吸引异性。华盛顿州队曾使用jocelyn米勒公司版本的信息素陷阱。

研究者开始治疗杨树与合成性信息素在2000 3 。其想法是混淆雄蛾。他们将能够感知到在场的女性无法找到他们，并会干扰再生产。

继成功的测试，并改善自己的待遇，并得到批准，由美国环境保护局。那是在2000六名。

布朗教授说，综合性信息素是安全，使工人能够重新进入森林后数个小时。只有少量的需要-少一克每两分半公顷。沃尔什教授说，治疗降低clearwing蛾种群迅速。今天，人口控制，但防治继续下去。

这也是该美国之音特别英语农业部报告，写jerilyn沃森。