Decoding the Locust 'Rallying Cry': Chinese Scientists Discover 'Smart Brake' to Usher in a New Era of Pest Control
For millennia, sky-darkening locust plagues have been a nightmare for human agriculture. How do these normally mild, solitary insects transform under certain conditions into devastating, swarming armies? The core of this enigma was recently cracked by a Chinese research team. They not only unveiled the synthesis secret of the locust 'rallying cry'—a chemical pheromone called 4-vinylanisole (4VA)—but also successfully designed a 'smart brake' capable of precisely 'shutting down' the locusts' swarming behavior. This achievement, published in the top-tier journal Nature, signals that global pest control is on the verge of entering a revolutionary 'era of intelligent regulation.'