Trapping the insects
| Diagram of how the traps work. |
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There is another type of moth that is a bit too clever for that. They lay only one egg per leaf so if the farmer had to burn all these eggs then he wouldn’t have much plant left. These moths are caught in another way.
The females have a whiteish yellow light on them which attracts the males to them. They also have a special smell. In order to catch these moths the farmers buy a “pheromone” trap, which imitates the smell. This trap lasts for an entire year and only costs 14p. It imitates the colour and smell of the female so the males fly into it and get caught in a plastic bag and they can’t get out again.
| One of the traps for insects. |
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There is also a trap for the insects which is basically a large light over a bowl of water mixed with kerosene. What happens is the bugs are attracted to the light and then they fall into the water mixture which stops them being able to fly by wetting their wings, so they drown in a very short time.
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