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Like a Moth to a ... Piece of Plastic
An anonymous writer sends: "Cook and DuPage counties in Illinois are attempting to deal with their gypsy moth problem by bombarding the moth population with female moth pheromone coated plastic flakes. This will overwhelm the males sensory organs, and inhibit their future reproduction. It will only require about 15 grams of flakes to cover each acre."
Cook and DuPage counties in Illinois are attempting to deal with their Linux user problem by bombarding the geek population with PowerBooks and RealDolls. This will overwhelm the nerds' sensory organs, and inhibit their future open-source coding binges.
"The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepeneur'." -George W. Bush
It's guaranteed to work better than the Californian experiment. The flakes cannot make things worse because they don't reproduce!
The Gypsy Moth pheremone is an attractant, not a stimulant, so another bad scenario - the male moths find the female and are extra randy - cannot happen either.
However, one should not underestimate nature. There could be unforeseen side-effects.
Mmmmmmm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/dec97/moth12 97.htm Popular-style article h eets/fs-generic_lep.htm very technical, EPA-orientedt m Article about an insect population simulation program. m Dr. Pat Muir's notes for a college class, short, readable. Excerpt:
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/facts
http://www.wcrl.ars.usda.gov/cec/papers/jce93-9.h
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2174.html Using bt instead
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/rhgiles/Trevey/Gypsy.htm Vermont, long piece, "gyplure"
http://www.orst.edu/instruction/bi301/chemcont.ht
"The advantages of pheromone use include the facts that they:
* are nontoxic
* are biodegradable
* can be used at low concentrations
* are highly species specific
Hazards or difficulties associated with their use include the facts that:
* resistance to pheromones could potentially evolve (although it would then be difficult for insects to find mates!)
* it is expensive and takes a long time to achieve commercial production."
More than you wanted to know about gypsy moths
In reading up about this I found that some of the same people who don't like pesticides also don't like Bt and pheromones. You wonder how they're going to like a deforested Pacific Northwest if those moths get loose up there.
P.S. URL for the meetup
That was 1981. The flies weren't irradiated enough--which was an industrial accident of sorts, not enough quality control at the insect irradiating plant (which was in Mexico). I don't think you can blame careless procedure in a foreign production facility on the governor of California no matter how much you personally dislike him.