Forest Service Station: Non Forest Service

One of my most exciting moments as a chemist occurred when we took the first pheromone lures into the field during a beetle flight. It had taken several months of work in the laboratory to create the beetle pheromones out of chemicals. When we brought the lures out, the tiny beetles were landing on our clothing and bouncing off our heads. Chemistry really came alive when I realized that our clothing had small amounts of pheromone on it, and that the beetles were strongly attracted to this small amount of pheromone. It was very satisfying to know that all the chemistry work was done right and that the beetles weren't able to distinguish people contaminated with synthetic pheromone from their normal host (a freshly killed tree infested with beetles). In this photo, I am holding a multifunnel trap that is often used to trap bark beetles. A multifunnel trap was used in this research, as you will learn.