Harnessing sustainable insect pheromones for natural crop management

PheroSyn’s mission

  • To reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture through pheromone-based integrated pest management strategies

  • To enable more effective pest control

  • To improve efficiency of crop treatment and reduce costs of pesticide deployment

  • To help mitigate climate change

View our introductory video below:

Control of insect pests in agriculture usually involves crop spraying with insecticides. Although effective, the lack of basic information on the location and timed appearance of pests results in the excessive application of chemicals, creating an unnecessary environmental burden and poor cost control.

PheroSyn’s role is to develop and supply novel insect pheromones.

Our specialist expertise leads us to synthesise species-specific pheromones that target the most prolific and damaging pests. 

By attracting specific pest species such as midges, pheromone traps give a clear and reliable indication of extant infestations, PheroSyn’s approach allows the crop to be treated at exactly the right time and with the right pesticides. Wasteful and inefficient over-spraying is avoided.

Custom development

Using cutting-edge science research and our advanced development facilities, we develop high quality pheromones for particular insect species.

This allows precise detection of harmful species as well as providing for highly targeted eradication strategies.

Pear midge control

Product Supply

Agribusiness companies can access our unique pheromones in volume.

We continue to add new products in response to demand.

Products already in our pheromone range include:

Insect Species

Crop Affected

Pea Midge

Peas

Saddle Gall Midge

Cereals

Pear Gall Midge

Pears

Pear Leaf Midge

Pears

Pea and Bean Weevil

Peas and Beans

Who are we?

PheroSyn is a spin-out from Rothamsted Research, the world-leading, non-profit research centre that focuses on strategic agricultural science to the benefit of farmers and society worldwide.

We benefit from being part of the SHAKE Climate Change programme, the consortium of leading scientific research and academic institutions formed to identify innovative solutions to tackle climate change linked to the agri-food sector.

Pea midge control

Meet the team

Dr Mary Ellis, MBA

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Daniel Bahia

Co-founder and Director of Operations

Dr Stephen Mills

Lead Development Chemist

Dr Rajendra Gosain

Development Chemist

Adrian Watson

Finance and Legal Consultant

Dr David Lawrence

Board Member

Bianca Forte, MBA

Board Member

Dr Michael Birkett, FRSC

Co-founder

Dr John Caulfield, MRSC

Co-founder

Dr David Withall, MRSC

Co-founder

Dr Sonny Ramaswamy

Advisor

PheroSyn supports the farming community as the basis of a sustainable and socially responsible sector.

Contact us

PheroSyn Ltd
Rothamsted Research
West Common
Harpenden
Hertfordshire
AL5 2JQ
UK

T: +44 (0) 7539 695382
E: info@pherosyn.com

Pherosyn