Insects Limited Bullet Lure Technology
Colleen O’Rourke, Account Manager at Insects Limited
At Insects Limited, we attribute our quality pheromone technology to three main pillars – science, education, and innovation.
We serve a vast majority of industries ranging from food safety and pest management professionals, museums and cultural heritage institutions to residential customers.
All of which use our Bullet lures for monitoring.
Let’s dive into the science behind the lure and what makes it the high-quality product it is today.
Insects Limited’s Bullet lures are scientifically designed to give you the most accurate monitoring data.
The Bullet lure (given its name for its resemblance of a 22-caliber bullet) has a unique design compared to other lures on the market. The plastic enclosure, balls, cap, and membrane are all scientifically calculated to give you a consistent release of pheromone in turn giving you the most accurate monitoring data.
Our pheromones, which are blended in our lab outside of Indianapolis Indiana, get injected into the bullet. Pheromones are scents that insects use to communicate with each other. Depending on the insect you’re trying to monitor, the Bullet lure will either contain a sex or aggregation pheromone.
Sex pheromones are almost always produced by the females to engage the males into mating. . These pheromones are typically produced by insects with shorter lifespans and are super attractive. Aggregation pheromones are released by males and attract both male and female insects. The insects are tricked into thinking they are meeting with other members of their species which draws them in.
Here we have our Rice Weevil Bullet Lure (IL-703). We know it’s the Rice Weevil lure because of the yellow balls inside.
Another reason we added the balls was to increase the surface area of the pheromone within the lure. This helps make sure the pheromone remains attractive for 90 days by not allowing the attractant to disperse all at once.
One thing that we’ve noticed over time is that most competing pheromones have a large spike in capturing insects within the first couple weeks, while the Bullet lure attraction remains steady.
This is due to the high doses of pheromones that are released when the competing lures are placed out. If your lures have released most of its pheromone within this timeframe, you’re more likely to have a high catch rate in the beginning but very inconsistent data throughout the remainder of your monitoring process.
Due to this inefficient data, infestations could potentially be growing without you noticing, and that’s the last thing we want to happen.
The last piece of the puzzle is the aluminum cap that seals the pheromone inside the lure. The cap is designed with a special matrix-based membrane that controls the release of pheromone. The combination of the balls, cap, and membrane ensures our pheromones will give you a consistent release for 3 months.
Using Insects Limited's Bullet lures will give you the most accurate monitoring data in your pest management program. This will not only enable you to save time and money but also help you know the appropriate next steps after insect detection has occurred.
Interested in learning more about Insects Limited's Bullet Lures? Contact Colleen O'Rourke today!
Insects Limited, an Insect Pheromone Company
Insects Limited, Inc. researches, tests, develops, manufactures and distributes pheromones and trapping systems for insects in a global marketplace. The highly qualified staff also can assist with consultation, areas of expert witness, training presentations and grant writing.
Insects Limited, Inc. specializes in a unique niche of pest control that provides mainstream products and services to protect stored food, grain, museum collections, tobacco, timber and fiber worldwide. Please take some time to view these products and services in our web store.
