Gould sterile insect technique provide effective pest control?

摘要

The UK's departure from the EU is not expected to increase the range of plant-protection products available to growers, but Brexit could open up the possibility of alternative pest and disease control technologies.One company founded in the UK to breed self-limiting pest populations via the so-called sterile insect technique has thus far had to relocate its research and development away from Europe to demonstrate its efficacy. This it claims to have done in a recent combined field, laboratory and modelling study in the USA to control diamond-back moth (Plutella xylostella), a recurrent pest of brassica crops both in the UK and internationally, the results of which have now been published (doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2019.00482).