Imagine how different the course of human events might have been had that mystical attraction between the sexes somehow been bottled and used as a secret weapon. There likely would have been lots of confusion, but no war. That's the approach UC scientists are using successfully in their efforts to develop environmentally sound methods of controlling insect pests. The technique -- called "mating disruption" -- makes use of the insect's own sexual scents, or pheromones, to throw some cold water on the reproductive cycle. Richard Rice, a UC Davis entomologist based at the Kearney Agricultural Center near Fresno, is one of the most knowledgeable researchers developing such methods to control the likes of codling moth, peach twig borer and the omnivorous leafroller. The development and use of synthetic sex pheromones has grown dramatically from their first successful deployment against the oriental fruit moth in 1985. Since then, a number of mating disruption materials have been developed for commercial use. Rice notes, however, that pheromones are not a panacea in the battle against bugs. He will report on progress in the industry, as well as some of its current limitations at 4:55 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11, during a talk on "Using Pheromones for Insect Management in Fruit Systems."