Speaking the Language of Insects
Every movement they make - selecting host plants, mating, laying eggs -is guided by olfactory signals. Plants constantly release volatile molecules into the air, creating a complex chemical landscape that insects follow. For them, agriculture is not a landscape of crops and fields, but a complex cloud of chemical signals.
These molecules, known as allelochemicals (eg. semiochemical family), form the foundation of communication between plantsand insects. For insects, they signal opportunity: where to feed, reproduce, and establish populations.
This chemical dialogue between plants and insects has been shaping ecosystems for millions of years. Today, the advanced expertise in chemical ecology developed by Agriodor’s scientists allowed them to decode this language and turn it into a powerful agricultural tool. It’s the olfactive technology: plant-based scents to disrupt pest behavior and protect crops.
This approach modifies how pests perceive the crop environment. By reshaping the scent landscape surrounding plants, it prevents pests from recognizing, colonizing, and exploiting crops.
The biological language of scents Insects detect odors through extremely sensitive receptors located on their antennae. These antennae are covered with microscopic structures called sensilla, each containing receptors tuned to recognize specific chemical compounds. When a volatile molecule matches the receptor structure, a signal travels through the insect’s nervous system and triggers a behavioral response. Some semiochemicals act as kairomones, attracting insects. Others act as allomones, repelling them.
Crucially, insects respond to precise blends of compounds emitted by
plants. The ratios and concentrations of these molecules define a plant’s scent signature. For insects, this scent signature functions as a navigation system. Alter the signal—and the insect’s decision-making process changes. This principle forms the scientific foundation of olfactive crop protection.
Designing functional scent blends Olfactive technology translates fundamental chemical ecology into practical agricultural solutions through Agriodor’s dedicated R&D platform. Designed as a discovery engine for scent-based biosolutions, the platform integrates expertise in chemical ecology, analytical chemistry, insect behavioral biology, and agronomy to systematically identify semiochemical combinations capable of disrupting pest behavior.
At the core of this platform lies the decoding of plant–insect olfactory communication. Agriodor scientists first identify the volatile molecules naturally emitted by plants and analyze how target pests respond to these signals. Using advanced analytical tools and behavioral assays, researchers decode the olfactory cues insects use. From this natural chemical bouquet, the most active semiochemicals are selected for their ability to disrupt pest behavior.
This integrated discovery pipeline allows Agriodor to move efficiently from fundamental chemical ecology to practical crop protection solutions. Agriodor operates the only laboratory platform worldwide that has successfully scaled the discovery and development of semiochemical blends for agricultural pest control.
The resulting blends function like targeted agricultural perfumes. Once released in the crop environment, they reshape the olfactory landscape perceived by insects and interfere with their natural host-finding mechanisms.
Because 70% of agricultural pests worldwide - including aphids, fruit flies, thrips, whiteflies, and even soil insects - rely on olfactory signals, this platform approach enables the rapid development of solutions across multiple crops and pest species. By modifying these signals, scent-based biosolutions disrupt pest establishment across many cropping systems, working alongside biological and chemical controls.
The outcome is a new class of biosolutions that act directly on pest behavior—and a scalable innovation platform capable of generating new
crop protection solutions across global agriculture.
Enhancing crop protection programs In practice, olfactive technology supports crop protection programs through two complementary strategic approaches. Both rely on the ability of scent blends to activate multiple behavioral mechanisms that modify how insects perceive and interact with crops(see adjacent figure):
These complementary strategies create crop shield—a protective scent environment that interferes with pest establishment, population growth, and crop exploitation.
Because many agricultural pests rely on similar olfactory pathways, this approach can be applied across a broad spectrum of insects throughout their life cycle. Each strategy relies on dedicated products and formulations adapted to specific agronomic contexts, demonstrating how scent-based biosolutions can strengthen crop protection while supporting more sustainable production systems.
From discovery to practicalfield solutions Turning scent-based discoveries into agricultural products requires formulations that fit naturally into farmers’ operations. Olfactive technology addresses this
challenge through flexible delivery systems adapted to different cropping systems :
Liquid formulations integrate easily into spray programs
Granular formulations can be applied using standard centrifugal spreaders
Diffusers provide long-term controlled release of scents
These delivery systems ensure reliable diffusion of scent blends while maintaining operational simplicity for growers.
Scent-based biosolutions integrate naturally into Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies and in organic farming. They complement biological control agents, monitoring systems, and conventional crop protection tools. According to pest pressure, olfactive technology can
be used in stand-alone or combined to conventional programs.
Sugar beet: protecting crops from virus yellows Sugar beet is a clear illustration of the biologicial insurance potential of olfactive technology.
From the earliest stages of crop development, young beet plants attract the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), which detects the crop through its natural scent emissions. Once established on the plant, aphids feed on sap and transmit viruses responsible for yellows disease, leading to yield losses of up to 30% and reduced sugar content. Effective protection therefore requires limiting aphid populations during the earliest growth stages, when plants are most vulnerable, and insecticides the less effective due to reduced foliar surface.
To deliver farmers an effective scent-based biosolution for protecting sugar beet, the Agriodor team spent three years identifying plant-emitted scents, semiochemicals called allomones, optimizing their Blend® ratios to create an innovative perfume that disrupts the aphids at everylife stage.
Applied early in the crop cycle, the scent blend creates a masking and repellent environment across the field, limiting aphid colonization and slowing population development during the crop’s most vulnerable stage.
The formulation developed for sugar beet takes the form of granules, allowing easy application with centrifugal spreaders already used by farmers. Each granule contains a biodegradable core and a protective coating that gradually releases the
scent blend into the crop environment for several weeks.
Over 3 years, Agriodor conducted large-scale field trials with more than 50 farmers across France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, covering more than 1,000 hectares of sugar beet production. Across these trials, the olfactive technology consistently demonstrated strong multi-generational suppression of aphid populations during the critical early stages of crop development. Results obtained in 2025 (adjacent figure) further confirmed these findings, delivering an average additional reduction of 51% in aphid populations when integrated with conventional crop protection programs.
By protecting plants during their most sensitive stage, the strategy shifts insecticide applications to
later growth stages when treatments are more effective. Depending on pest pressure, the final insecticide application can be avoided as the crop moves beyond its sensitive period.
The result is a healthier crop, fewer insecticide applications, and improved yield security.
Agriodor is scaling olfactive technology worldwide The implications of olfactive technology extend far beyond sugar beet. As a spin off and partner of INRAE (French main public research institute dedicated to agriculture, food systems, and environmental science), Agriodor is now scaling their solutions across crops and geographies. While early development has focused on European agriculture, expansion toward major global production regions is already underway. The Americas, and particularly Brazil, offer vast opportunities for deploying olfactive biosolutions in large-scale crops such as soybean, maize, cotton, and sugarcane, but also in vegetables productions and orchards.
As global agriculture seeks effective solutions that combine productivity, sustainability, and regulatory compatibility, technologies based on plant scents provide a new direction for crop protection.
By harnessing the natural language of plants and insects, olfactive technology transforms scents into a powerful crop protection strategy—one that protects crops, environment, strengthens pest management programs, and opens a new chapter in agricultural biosolutions. ●
Insects detect odors through extremely sensitive receptors located on their antennae.
