News
Plant volatiles can disrupt aphid orientation
Published: 27 November 2015
Aphids use plant volatiles to find their host plants, and you can disrupt their orientation by manipulating the odor of a crop. This has been shown by scientists at the Department of Crop Production Ecology. The knowledge can be used to develop new methods to protect crops from aphids.
“By disrupting aphid orientation we can prevent them to establishing as pests in a field”, says Iris Dahlin, a doctoral student at the Department of Crop Production Ecology.
She and her colleagues have made experiments with the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), an important virus vector and insect pest. It is one of the species that find their host plant by using the sense of smell. They were significant less attracted to plants with altered odor profile, such as potatoes exposed to volatiles from onions.
One way to change a plant's odor is to grow it together with other plants. Therefore, we could protect crops against aphids by variety mixtures or intercropping.
Read the article in the Journal of Pest Science
Changed host plant volatile emissions induced by chemical interaction between unattacked plants reduce aphid plant acceptance with intermorph variation
Iris Dahlin, Andja Vucetic, Velemir Ninkovic