Clearly, more environmentally friendly approaches to pest control are needed, and there’s one solution that could be about to hit the big time: targeting these pests’ sex drives. Via WIREDUK
And importantly, insects don’t evolve resistance to their own communication signals, says Löfstedt, whereas they do to pesticides. Repeated use of a pesticide family commonly leads to insects adapting and no longer responding to those same chemicals, meaning higher and higher doses are needed to have an effect—with dire environmental consequences.
There’s regulation to overcome too. The fact that it’s a genetically modified technology could prove a major roadblock and also drive up costs, Ramasamy warns. “In most countries, the production of GMOs may not be very expensive, but the regulatory dossier they have to undergo needs a lot of investment,” he says. In fact, stringent rules on using GMOs in Europe could mean the continent misses out on these products, Löfstedt says.
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