Abstract:

Pheromones as a class of chemicals that are released from insects in vitro to regulate or induce the behavior and response of other individuals. In recent years, usage of pheromones as a replacement for pesticides against harmful insects has become a new technology for integrated pest management. Compared with traditional pesticide control methods, pheromones have some important ecological advantages such as high specificity, non-resistance, low toxicity and harmless to beneficial organisms. Furthermore, pheromones are generally susceptible to degradation accompanied with high volatility. Therefore, pheromone-based controlled release technology has attracted extensive interests of scientific community and is a new interdisciplinary subject covering chemistry, materials and agriculture. Controlled or sustained release of insect pheromones through a specific method or technology can effectively control pests, reduce the use of pesticides and improve the level of environmental ecology. At the same time, the controlled release technology can also reduce the total amount of regional chemicals and save costs. This paper reviews the latest research progress of sustained release technology for insect pheromone and the future development is prospected.

Key words: insect pheromone, controlled release, material chemistry