Green mirid pheromones
The green mirid, Creontiades dilutus, is an emerging pest of cotton in Australia. It also attacks other crops, such as grain legumes.
The green mirid is an endemic Australian species that has become a major pest of cotton following the reduction in insecticide use that has accompanied the adoption of transgenic cotton, which controls caterpillar pests. Spraying for green mirids can disrupt biological control of secondary pests, leading to outbreaks later in the season. To avoid this, growers need a method of monitoring mirid populations. Working with PhD student Samuel Lowor, now of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, we identified the sex attractant pheromone used by female green mirids to attract males. With funding from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation and the assistance of Scentry Biologicals Inc. we developed a lure and trapping system which can provide early warning of potentially damaging infestations. We are continuing research to maximise the benefits for Australian cotton growers.
Honey bee research
The European honey bee, Apis mellifera, offers marvelous examples of chemical ecology in insect life. Bees can detect at least 170 different airborne chemicals, some in concentrations much lower than we can sense. They learn to associate these odours with food, and remember their learning. They also remember how to navigate over distances of several kilometers to their food sources, and can communicate this information to other bees. And all this with a brain no larger than a sesame seed! But bees are in decline in many parts of the world, due to parasites, diseases and the impacts of agriculture, including pesticides.
We are researching ways of deterring bees from foraging on pesticide-treated crops, and have patented novel technology which harnesses their remarkable learning capacity by changing volatile profiles of crops to include odors which bees have negatively associated with foraging behaviour.