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Amorous moths in a spin
20 Aug 2003
The air will be filled with pheromones in the Victorian town of Cobram next week, as local stonefruit growers prepare to do battle with the Oriental Fruit Moth. Conditions are now ripe for the appearance of the pest, so local Department of Primary Industries researchers are distributing sex scent emitters for stonefruit trees in Cobram backyards.
Mating disruption dispensers, or sex emitters, are the main control method used for the moth. They emit synthetic sex pheromones which confuse the male moths and make them too distracted to find females for breeding.
DPI officer Henry Schneider said the main problem was once the moth leaves a treated area, he finds a female to mate with. That's why the DPI is enlisting the help of the whole town to fight the pest that costs the industry millions of dollars in losses each year.
The Oriental Fruit Moth is the stonefruit industry's number one enemy and is becoming increasingly resistant to pesticides. It destroyed nearly half of the region's canned peach crops on some properties two years ago.
Weekly Times, 20/8/03, page 13.
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