Bees and other pollinators are under siege. With pesticides, the climate crisis, and habitat loss, bee colonies are weakening and becoming more susceptible to pests like wax moths, which can devastate hives. This vulnerability doesn’t just affect beekeepers—it threatens food security across the apiculture industry.
A collaboration between researchers at the University of Strathclyde and Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization is tapping into the wax moths’ unusual hearing to create a pest-control approach that protects bees without harming them. Their work focuses on exploiting the moths’ ultrasonic perception to deter them from beehives in a sustainable, efficient way.
Lara Díaz García, a postdoctoral researcher at Strathclyde, will present the team’s findings on Thursday, Dec. 4 at 10:30 a.m. HST. The presentation is part of the Sixth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan, taking place December 1–5 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Wax moths exploit weakened colonies by tunneling into hives and feeding on honeycomb and bee eggs. Combating an infestation is labor-intensive: beekeepers must remove affected frames and trap any remaining moths with sticky devices.
These moths hear sounds four octaves higher than humans, a capability they use to avoid predators like bats and to detect male moth calls. They distinguish these calls by the timing of the signal and the volume of the sound.
By studying which bat echolocation patterns trigger the strongest neural responses in wax moths, the researchers identified an effective ultrasonic deterrent. Since bees cannot hear, this method poses no risk to them.
The researchers note that the technique can be adapted to different moth species. It requires initial tuning to the most sensitive hearing range for a given species, after which the method should apply to most other hearing-capable moths.
Díaz García and colleagues also produced a simplified model of the lesser wax moth’s eardrum, capturing its key features to explain directional hearing. Their aim is to generalize this approach to other moths and to develop a commercial pest-control device or acoustic sensors modeled after moth ears.
“Nature is incredibly inspiring for technology,” Díaz García commented. “This work also offers a tangible solution to real problems we’re seeing because of the climate crisis.”
/Public Release. This material originates from the issuing organization or authors and may reflect point-in-time information, edited for clarity and length. Mirage.News does not endorse any positions; all views expressed here are those of the authors. View the full article at https://www.miragenews.com/ultrasonic-tech-shields-beehives-from-pests-1583880/
