December 19, 2002
The sex pheromones of the
diamondback moth and a fungus may save Australia millions of
dollars.
The diamondback moth is a serious threat to vegetable
production, especially Brassicas such as cabbages, cauliflowers
and other related greens.
CSIRO's Dr Richard Vickers is an expert on pheromones - the
naturally occurring scents which insects use to control their
mating cycle.
As
part of $2.5 million for research funded under the Federal
Government's Backing Australia's Ability Innovation Access
Programme announced by Science Minister Peter McGauran last
week, CSIRO
has been funded to work
collaboratively with researchers in several European Union
nations on novel integrated pest management ideas.
The research will target new microbial control products based on
fungal pathogens aimed at controlling three key insect pests of
Brassica vegetables.
Project leader, pheromone expert Dr Richard Vickers of CSIRO
Entomology in Brisbane, says that one target in particular,
diamondback moth, is a major threat to Brassica production in
Australia.
"We aim to ensure that the fungal pathogens are disseminated by
the pests themselves to others in the population," says Dr
Vickers. "This is known as 'auto-dissemination' and it offers
significant advantages over the chemical insecticides in current
use, both in terms of environmental and economic sustainability
and avoidance of resistance problems."
The project will enable Dr Vickers to use his expertise, by
designing an inoculation chamber which will infect the pest
insects with a lethal dose of an insect-specific fungal
pathogen.
Dr
Vickers says that the design of the new inoculation chamber is
critical to the success of the project. The chamber has to have
a number of features, including trapping the insects for
sufficient time to become infected as well as providing the
correct climate in terms of humidity and low UV light levels to
ensure that the pathogen will survive in it for a reasonable
length of time.
"And, of course, cost will be factor in its eventual take up, so
we need to keep it as simple as possible," says Dr Vickers.
"For that reason, we are especially keen to ensure that this
project benefits Australia through increased market
opportunities for SME's that adopt the technology," says Dr
Vickers.
"And working collaboratively with leaders in this field in
Europe will lead to improvements to our research capacity and
our ability to develop novel control strategies for other
pests."
This is particularly important because of the advantages that
'clean and green' produce confers upon our export and domestic
markets says Dr Vickers.
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