Insect smell study aims to develop environmentally safe pest controls, reduce disease
By Laura GartryDetermining how insects smell food will help develop the next generation of environmentally-friendly repellents and pesticide technology, researchers say.
Insect biologist Dr Wei Xu from Murdoch University in Perth is leading a groundbreaking four-year project to develop insect attractants which are more efficient than pesticides and bug spray.
Protecting Australia's estimated $20 billion crop industry against damage from insect pests and transmitted diseases is an ongoing challenge for producers and researchers.
Working in collaboration with researchers in the US and the CSIRO, Dr Xu is using a worldwide pest, the red flour beetle, which targets grain, wheat and barley as his test case.
"Insects rely on their senses to detect food. This has considerable potential for the development of odour-based behaviour control methods," he said.
"This project will develop new insights into underlying insect smell systems.
"We hope to identify potential attractants and develop environmentally safe, insect pest controls."
Dr Xu is using the scent data to create environmentally-friendly pest traps to protect crops and people without the need to use chemical pesticide or repellents.
"Before, we used a very conventional method to identify what type of food attracted the insect, then tried to identify what chemicals are attracting them, but that can take a lot of time as there can be thousands of chemicals," Dr Xu said.
"Now I'm looking at the other side, the insect smell system which can help us decrease the candidate chemicals. It's smarter than the traditional method."
As well as agriculture and personal use, Dr Xu's research hopes to offer health benefits by reducing infection and diseases transmitted through insect bites.
"The system can also be used for medical reasons, like for mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus, malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, and Ross River virus," he said.
Dr Xu hopes the translational research will offer some solutions to global challenges in food security and health.
"The project offers new opportunities for the development of more environmentally-sustainable pest control strategies to benefit both Australian and global agriculture, human health and environmental sustainability."
Dr Xu hopes the attractant system will be commercialised in the future.