Convenient method applicable to single insects for collection and measurement of blend ratios of airborne pheromones from artificial sources.

A simple, fast, and sensitive technique has been developed for collecting airborne pheromones with potential application to a live and free-moving single insect. The surface within a disposable glass (Pasteur) pipet is sufficient to trap low nanogram quantities of sex pheromones, and molecules sensitive to oxidation such as (Z)-9-tetradecenal and (Z,E)-9,12-tetradecadienyl acetate are not significantly degraded during the chosen periods of aerial trapping. Rapid measurements of blend ratios for synthetic pheromone mixtures and detection at the low picogram level have been achieved by GC-MS.