NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Multimodal Animal Communication Ecology

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Although modern pesticides play a key role in controlling pest taxa, many insects have developed pesticide resistance. Moreover, public concern over continued and growing use of pesticides has prompted regulatory agencies to restrict their use which has lead to the resurgence of many pests. Other pests continue their assault on people, livestock, food and fiber, severely affecting our health and natural resource-based economies. Alternative and more integrated pest control strategies are urgently needed. The renewal proposal of the Chair is about some of those alternatives: multi-modal communication signals that insects, ticks, spiders and rodents utilize to communicate, and multi-modal foraging cues that these taxa exploit to locate resources. The emphasis is on the discovery of multi-modal and multi-component communication signals and foraging cues because - increasingly - evidence indicates that both vertebrates and invertebrates integrate diverse types of information. The discovery of novel visual, semiochemical, sonic, infrared, bio-magnetic and electrostatic communication signals and foraging cues, and synergisms between them, would allow the development of more effective attractants and repellents, and new tactics for target-specific pest control. The 4th Chair-term will target challenging pest groups that inflict severe pain on livestock (horn & stable flies), carry disease-causing pathogens (mosquitoes, ticks, rodents), or simply have escaped effective control (thrips, spidermites).