Washington, June 7 (IANS) Scientists are developing 'super-sexed' yet sterile male insects to copulate with female ones to control pests.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) scientists hope to offer yet another efficient and promising avenue for supplying produce to the market by eliminating pests without ecological damage.

An assortment of chemicals, such as DDT, have been employed since early in the last century to control crop pests or carriers of diseases.

However, this approach has led to the evolution of resistance to pesticides and has damaged human health and the environment.

As an alternative, Boaz Yuval, the HUJ professor in agriculture, food and environment, is working on upgrading a veteran approach, known as the sterile insect technique.

This method is currently employed against several dozen insect species. The principle is to rear millions of individuals of the species one seeks to control, separate the sexes, sterilise the males and release them into the field.

It is expected that the sterile males will copulate with wild females, which will then be unable to lay fertile eggs, thus reducing the pest populations.

The process of rearing millions of male insects, sterilising them and transporting them to the release site can severely affect their sexual competitiveness, says Yuval.

The research in Yuval's lab at the Department of Entomology focuses on improving this technique, as applied to fruit flies and mosquitoes.

Yuval has studied the behavioural and physiological elements that define the factors that contribute to male sexiness, and subsequently has devised ways to confer these characteristics on sterile males.

One of these factors is nutritional status. Yuval found that feeding males on high protein diets significantly improves their sexual performance, said an HUJ release.

Accordingly, Yuval and his colleagues are formulating a high-protein, bacteria enhanced 'breakfast of champions' which will be provided to males before their release, and significantly improve their sexual performance, but render them sterile.

Their work is described in the International Society for Microbial Ecology.