Friday, March 14, 2008

Ooh, you are naughty, but I like you!









Our local fruticulturalist has put two-thirds of his orchard into the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which means that that part of the orchard has to be managed by "traditional" methods, ie, no pesticides, no fungicides, and so on. The result is that he now has an infestation of codling moths, the scourge of fruit growers.
But, not to worry, a biological control is available. There is a pheremone specific to this species, so what you do is to perfume your trees with the pheremone. And here's where the boggle entered my mind as he described how it works:
The pheremone attaches itself to the males who come to investigate it and this makes them irresistible to other males. Imagine it: an orchard full of poofter moths chasing each other round the trees having a gay old time while the female moths look on dismayed, wondering if the sexual revolution hasn't gone just a bit too far.

No comments: