International Pheromone Systems

Today crop production is concerned with soil control, soil management and relevant plant cultivation to maximise crop yields.

This can be achieved by manipulating the environment to grow extensive uniform stands of crops, which are essentially monocultures. Such environments of potential host plants provide a highly attractive resource for many phytophagous insects, and are as a result, the majority of insects classed as agricultural pests have been human created through ancient and modern agricultural practices. Other factors contributing to pest infestations include higher quality crop strains and accidental spread of pests from country to country, mainly arising from lack of stringent biosecurity in global trade.

Before the advent of commercial produced pesticides, management of pest outbreaks typically involved adapting the environment to make it less habitable through the adoption of physical and cultural strategies. Now that we have a greater understanding of the hazardous nature of pesticides and appreciate the importance of the equilibrium between plant, herbivore and predator, many of these earlier methods are once again being practiced, alongside other, more up-to-date, strategies.

This harmonious approach to improve crop yields is called integrated pest management (IPM). An IPM program utilises a variety of different methods in combination to sustainably manage pest outbreaks. The various strategies adopted depend on the crop, pest and region, however, usually consist of a combination of physical, biological, cultural and chemical practices.

Pheromone trapping systems play an essential role in any IPM protocol. When used to monitor for pests, out trapping systems enable agronomists, farmers and growers to determine if, and when, a pest is present and can often provide a reliable estimate of the pest population. Using this information our customers can not only reduce the amount of chemical or biological pesticide they use by applying only when it is absolutely necessary, but also ensure that efficiency of any control strategy undertaken, is maximised.

We offer pheromone dispensers and traps for almost 70 important economic pests of agriculture including the Fall Armyworm, the European Corn Borer, the Cotton Bollworm and the Diamond Black Moth.