placed at its end. (Photos courtesy of Sol Mednick and Scientific American). Honeybee queens spend their lives literally surrounded by a retinue of worker bees. The workers are attracted to her by a pheromone that she releases from her mandibular glands. The pheromone is a mixture of alcohols and organic acids. Among its effects: Hundreds of pheromones are known with which one sex (usually the female) of an insect species attracts its mates. Many of these sex attractants -- or their close chemical relatives -- are available commercially. They have proved useful weapons against insect pests in two ways: Male Confusion Distributing a sex attractant throughout an area masks the insect's own attractant and thus may prevent the sexes getting together. This "communication disruption" has been used successfully against a wide variety of important pests. For example, the sex attractant of the cotton boll weevil has reduced the need for conventional chemical insecticides by more than half in some cotton-growing areas. Insect Monitoring Insect sex attractants are also valuable in monitoring pest populations. By baiting traps with the appropriate pheromone, a build-up of the pest population can be spotted early. Even if a conventional insecticide is the weapon chosen, its early use reduces the amount needed damage to the crop cost to the grower ossible damage to the environment. Early detection of pest build-up is a key ingredient in the system known as integrated pest management ( IPM ). The photo (courtesy of USDA) shows the feathery antennae of a