Posted on: 02 March, 2017
Author: Alexander P
With the top pheromones, they could be used as temporary measures until synthetic brood and queen pheromones are available. On most crops honeybees collecting pollen are more effective as pollinators... With the top pheromones, they could be used as temporary measures until synthetic brood and queen pheromones are available. On most crops honeybees collecting pollen are more effective as pollinators than those collecting nectar only. Increasing the amount of brood pheromone which stimulates pollen collection in particular, should also increase pollina- tion. Until relevant synthetic brood pheromone is available minor and inexpensive adaptations to hives that direct foragers to the brood areas of colonies and so increase their exposure to natural brood pheromone can be employed. Conversely directing returning foragers away from the brood could aid in providing pollen-free combs of honey. Many crops needing pollination are relatively unattractive to bees and even when honeybee colonies are placed at the crops only a small proportion of foragers visit them. As well as using synthetic pheromones to increase foraging and pollination, it should be possible to use them to attract bees to the particular crops needing pollination. Although promising results have yet to be obtained it seems that an attractant based on some of the Nasonov pheromone components could be useful. Perhaps one based on the honeybee trail pheromone could be more effective. If insecticide is applied to a crop while it is still in ower it should be possible to repel foragers from it by using synthetic alarm pheromones. Perhaps a synthetic pheromone based on that used to mark unrewarding oral sources and deter bees from visiting them could also be used in this connection. Most of the synthetic pheromones mentioned above are far from a reality and their production is still dependent on identication of the natural material. Dispensing the synthetic pheromones within the colony may also present problems. But some synthetic pheromones are already available or soon will be. No doubt many other uses of synthetic pheromones will suggest themselves as we learn more of the many pheromonal systems employed by the honeybee colony. Primary research objectives should be to dispense synthetic queen, brood and foraging pheromones and so programme a co1ony’s activities to enhance crop pollination and honey production. Before this can be achieved all the chemical components of the pheromones concerned need to be identied and their functions determined so a synthetic product, equal or superior to the original can be produced. The conditions under which the pheromone is released and its mode of distribution must also be determined so that synthetic pheromones can be dispensed efciently in the correct behavioural context according to http://webstyletalk.net/pherazone-ultra-blew-me-away/ There has already been much progress but continued intensive and prolonged research will be necessary before these targets can be achieved. Fortunately, because the honeybee is so widely distributed and valued, the results of research will have an equally widespread inuence on crop and honey yields. Gaston (1970) demonstrated that male moths of Trichoplusia ni visually orient and hover adjacent to a model of a female, even when the model is located two cm to one side of a pheromone source. When a female moth of Porthetria dispar, that is not emitting pheromone, is placed’ 15 cm upwind from a hidden sex pheromone source, males are unable to locate her, even though they may overshoot the source and pass but a few cm from her (Doane 1968). A similar female located 15 cm downwind from the source is readily located by the males and landing and attempt- ed copulation occur. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com Alexander P is a blogger from Los Angeles who studies pheromones.