HungryPests Blog

Now that you’ve read a little about the Sterile Insect Technique itself, you may be wondering how it works. How does one rear and release thousands, or even millions, of sterile insects? What makes them sterile? How do we know the insects are doing their job?

Let’s start from the beginning. The Sterile Insect Technique involves three basic stages: mass rearing of the insect pest; sterilization of reared insects; and release of sterilized insects into infested areas. The Moss Landing facility has been set up to rear enough light brown apple moths to determine the best method of implementing the SIT: the best method to rear the moths, to evaluate them and see how the sterilized insects are performing.  Read more... (502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)