FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN URBAN ENTOMOLOGY- PHEROMONES.

Abstract:
Pheromone usage in Urban and Stored Products Entomology has been confined predominantly to insect pest monitoring to date and only in a few cases have pheromones been used for direct population suppression. Thls paper reviews the advances that have been made over recent years in the use of pheromones for monitoring moths, beetles and cockroaches amongst others in the built environment. Some thought is also given to possible future developments which could come from the innovative use of pheromones in this branch of Entomology. Pheromones can also play an important role in suppressing urban and stored product insect pests through techniques such as mass trapping, mating disruption or 'lure and kill'. Mass trapping as a technique has been limited in its application mainly by the absence of suitable attractants and good trap design, whereas mating disruption has only been achieved to date with moth pests. Lure and Kill on the other hand provides the best opportunity for the application of pheromones where they can impact a fast changing insectidide industry which is increasingly trying to attract target insects to insecticides instead of propelling insecticides to insects. Successful exploitation of pheromones through this technique may however, require them to be mixed with other semiochemicals as well as visual or auditory cues.