Experts from Lund University developed a cheaper way of producing
artificial pheromones that can confuse insects and prevent them to find
mates.

Manufacturing artificial pheromones is complex and expensive. It can
cost around US$1,000 to US$3,500 per kilogram, and an additional US$40
to US$400 deployment cost, depending on the type of pest. Thus,
decreasing the cost to make pheromones will make this
environmentally-friendly pest control accessible to farmers, especially
in developing countries.

Together with his collaborators from several countries, chemical
ecologist Christer L??fstedt, has been engineering plants to produce the
chemical building blocks needed for synthesizing pheromones. They used
Camelina, a flowering plant with seeds rich in fatty acids, which are
the key ingredients in making the raw materials. Using genetic
engineering, they introduced agenefrom the navel orangeworm which causes
Camelina seeds to produce an essential fatty acid that is the precursor
to mating pheromones. The team reported in/Nature Sustainability/that
the pheromone traps they have developed worked as well as commercial
synthetic pheromones.

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