Pat- Thanks for the heads up- good info. It's interesting to think about the lures "pulling from twice as far away downwind with certain types of air currents". It makes me start to visualize the coverage area around the lures as potential "ameba-like" shapes, not necessarily circles.
That got me thinking more about pheromone lures being drawn up into the return vents... When setting out lures across a building, and the HVAC system draws up air from all over, would that essentially make the buildings entire return vent duct system is an "active moth attractant"? If moths were to be attracted into the return vents from pheromones across the building, do you think they would be strong enough flyers/crawlers to potentially breed and survive in there (assuming females found their way into the vents as well)? HVAC return ducts can become dusty over time, and seem like a spot for potential moth breeding, unless the air currents in there are strong enough to make surviving/breeding impossible. (I'm not sure how strong the wind currents are in typical museum HVAC systems- my guess there is pretty substantial winds for something like a webbing moth). Has anyone had experience with furnace filters being full of moths that were sucked down the HVAC system? When (if) they do eventually hit that filter at the end of the return vent, if they were still alive, I wonder if they would have the strength at that point to crawl out into that furnace room. Has anyone ever tried to breed webbing moths in a wind tunnel?... just kidding. Just thinking out loud here. If anyone has had experience with webbing moths in HVAC vents, can you chime in about the nature of what you saw? Thanks, Todd On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 12:42 PM, Pat Kelley <[email protected]> wrote: > Todd, > > You bring up some very good points. The distance a particular lure will > attract an insect is based on insect biology (how much it is motivated by a > sex pheromone), insect mobility (whether it can fly), and where the > pheromone ends up. The pheromone scent coming off of the lures is naked > to the eye, but is similar in physical characteristics to smoke coming off > of a campfire. Those that have sat downwind of a campfire have the red eyes > to attest that all of the smoke went in their direction. > > If you hang a pheromone trap directly in front of a return air duct, > nearly all of the pheromone will be pulled into the air handling system and > will not draw in insects from the room. Along those same lines, a trap > placed into the center of a room with a constant and predominate air flow > in one direction will not draw in insects at all from an upwind direction > but may draw in insects from twice as far as the recommended placement from > the downwind direction. > > All of these things need to be taken into account when setting up a > pheromone monitoring program. > > A simple wet finger test may give you enough info in this respect or other > more scientific means can be implemented to determine air flow and velocity. > > Thanks for bringing up this important factor in a monitoring program. > > Pat > ------------------------------ > *From:* [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf > of Todd Holmberg <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Wednesday, November 7, 2018 11:29:14 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [pestlist] Pheromone Lures > > Hey Everyone, > > I have been wondering about something for a while, and figured I'd shoot > out an email to the list and see if anyone has any opinions about it one > way or the other. > > Basically, the question has to do with a pheromone lures ability to > "fight" HVAC air currents. I try not to place lures in the vicinity of > return vents (and supply vents for that matter), and try to find areas that > seem "quiet" as far as drafts go. However, the HVAC system is pretty > evenly spread making it difficult to find areas that don't feel like the > scent is going to get drawn up from the trap right into the return vent. > > Is there anyone that can speak to a pheromone lures ability to cover a 25' > radius (approx.) around the trap, when dealing with HVAC air currents that > in some cases seem somewhat noticeable? > > If anyone has any thoughts that deal with this issue, I would be > interested to hear what you have to say. > > Thanks, > Todd > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Museumpests" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/pestlist. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/pestlist/CAMxAh%2BgZE8NXiTewOn%2BCYvmfmu7cEk- > W1o7T3csKzNu%2BzDHu7Q%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAMxAh%2BgZE8NXiTewOn%2BCYvmfmu7cEk-W1o7T3csKzNu%2BzDHu7Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Museumpests" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/pestlist. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/pestlist/DM5SPR00MB106047FF3B79D13C41C6272F8C40%40DM5SPR00MB106. > namprd14.prod.outlook.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/DM5SPR00MB106047FF3B79D13C41C6272F8C40%40DM5SPR00MB106.namprd14.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Museumpests" group. 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