Insect Pests of Fruits, Plantation, Medicinal & Aromatic Crops

2. 8. Pheromones in Pest Management

• Pheromones are chemical substances released by insects which attract other individuals of the same species.
  
• Sex pheromones have been used in pest management in the following ways
a. Monitoring
b. Mating disruption
c. Mass trapping

• These methods can be successfully included in organic method of pest management. Sex pheromones of the following insects are commercially available in market.
Table 9. Commercially available sex pheromones for insects
Sl. No.	Common Name	Scientific name
1.	American bollworm	Helicoverpa armigera
2.	Pink bollworm	Pectinophora gossypiella
3.	Spotted bollworm	Earias vitella
4.	Spiny bollworm	Earias insulana
5.	Tobacco cutworm	Spodoptera litura
6.	Early shoot borer of sugarcane	Chilo infuscatellus
7.	Yellow stem borer of rice	Scirpophaga incertulas
8.	Diamond back moth	Plutella xylostella
9.	Mango fruit fly	Bactrocera dorsalis
10.	Melon fruitfly	Bactrocera cucurbitae


• Aggregation pheromones of red palm weevil and Rhinoceros beetle of coconut are also available in market. Different types of pheromone traps such as sleeve type trap, delta and sticky traps are also manufactured and sold by different firms. In addition to the above many new pheromones of field and storage pests are being manufactured by commercial firms and will be available to farmers soon.