Interviewing the insect

When developing new products to lure and trap pest insects, the main challenge is that a bug won’t sit down for an interview.

No one can assemble an insect focus group and ask them what kind of fragrances or foods they like, what scents repel them, what colors catch their eyes or whether they would prefer to enter a trap from a top, bottom or side opening.  

But we can get closer to interviewing a bug than anyone else in the insect trap business, thanks to a machine called an Electro Antenna Detector, or EAD. It allows us to measure the reaction of an insect’s antenna to a particular scent.

The EAD is a rare piece of instrumentation, and equally rare is a person with the knowledge to run it. Only about 200 scientists in the world have the capability to work with an EAD. We are fortunate to have one of those scientists: our Director of Research Dr. Qing-He Zhang.

We gather live insects in the field throughout the year, sometimes traveling great distances to do so if we don't have a particular species in our own back yard. Once in our lab, the EAD "interviews" the insects through their antennae.

Removing the antenna from a live insect, our scientists attach electrodes to each end and test different materials to read the reaction on a computerized graph. Though detached from the body, the antenna is still “alive” for several hours and will maintain its ability to react to scents. A strong reaction will make the line jump on the graph.