In what way does pheromone work on the same species of plant or animal?

We’ve now had a way of working on insects to change their behavior with how to stop locusts swarming, and a possible way of changing crops to help them survive a drought. Now here’s an ingenious piece of research that tries to do both at the same time. To control insect activity and help the crop grows through one treatment. It’s all down to pheromones, the chemical signals that allow members of the same species of plant or animal to communicate. They’re as powerful as hormones, which travel in the blood, but unlike hormones they travel through the air. And it’s the 50th birthday of their discovery this year.

Today’s Australians are well aware of the problems they face. Many of them come straight from the actions of the settlers in Darwin’s time as they pushed towards the interior. They took millions of sheep with them. Sheep are crass unthinking creatures and they’ve done a lot to destroy the local habitat. It’s not their mouths, but their hooves. Those sharp little appendages are new to Australia. The natives hop or ramble without their help. The grasses, in particular, have paid a heavy price.