KEY POINTS:
New Zealand scientists may suggest to US crop protection agencies that a slightly kinky approach could help eradicate their light brown apple moth pests.
Authorities in California release millions of irradiated sterile fruitflies annually to disrupt the mating of Mediterranean fruitfly and other species of the pest.
Now, the state is being threatened by an Australian pest, light brown apple moth, which poses a multi-million dollar risk to to commercial crops and forests.
A Hortresearch expert on pheromones, biosecurity science leader Dr Max Suckling, has proposed that the released fruitflies could also be doused in female apple moth pheromones to confuse male moths looking for a mate.
"Max called it menage-a-trois for insects, but officially it is 'mobile mating disruption'," said a Hortresearch expert on bio-protection, Phillippa Stevens. "It is a completely novel concept".
Dr Suckling and other researchers are exploring the concept internationally.
Dr Suckling is also looking at another novel idea - using a paintball gun to combat the pests.
Californian authorities have been using millions of wire ties, with plastic that releases the pheromone, as a ground-based tactic in the battle.
But the ties need to be put on poles and trees at the rate of about 600 a hectare, with a brightly-coloured tag so that they can later be retrieved - a huge cost in terms of labour.
The Hortresearch team is looking at being able to "shoot" a sticky ball, which will exude the pheromone, on to surfaces such as tree trunks, reducing the labour cost of hooking on each wire tie individually.
- NZPA
