Mating Disruption Pays Off: Use is increasing rapidly as growers reduce the number of nuts damaged by navel orangeworm.

摘要

TO SAY BRAD HIGBEE is an expert in mating disruption, the use of phero-mones to confuse target pests and reduce their populations, is putting it mildly.Higbee, who is the research entomologist for the biggest tree nut grower in the world, California'sParamount Farming Co., started working on mating disruption in the early 1990s. Back then he was working for USDA-Agricultural Research Service in the biggest pest of apples and pears in the state of Washington, codling moth. "We managed area-wide sites where we demonstrated that the technique was not only effective," he says, "it greatly decreased the need for pesticide applications."