John A. Pickett Suggests Plants Deliver Their Own Pest Controls

[Hunter]

Pickett's 2017 ARS Sterling Hendricks Memorial Lecture Suggests Plants...

Pickett has pioneered the discovery of how pheromones and other signaling chemicals govern communication between insects and manage interactions between insects and their plant and animal hosts. These chemicals, called semiochemicals, influence the behavior of other organisms.

He was the first to chemically characterize mosquito, sandfly and aphid sex pheromones. Pickett later proved that when insect pheromones and plant-derived semiochemicals are used together in traps, their ability to attract insect pests is multiplied beyond that of just adding each together.

Such work is forefront in the contemporary movement away from wide spectrum pesticides toward more precise biobased controls that target specific pests. The impact of Pickett’s research reaches beyond scientific and agricultural communities, providing benefits to society and the general environment.

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