O agronegócio tem importância econômica mundial e é fundamentalpara o Brasil devido à sua grande participação na pauta de exportações brasileiras. A demanda social pela conservação do meio ambiente e por alimentos livres de agrotóxicos tem imposto restrições ao uso de defensivos agrícolas sintéticos e criado desafios à ciência para a exploração dos recursos naturais no controle de pragas que causam prejuízo expressivoà agricultura. O uso não restrito de inseticidas altamente tóxicos, por muitas décadas, tem provocado efeitos negativos para o ambiente e o envenenamento de espécies não alvo. Devido a isto, o Manejo Integrado de Pragas foi criado, com um grande suporte dos semioquímicos, compostos ou misturas de compostos com ações específicas em pragas, dos quais os feromônios são os principais componentes.A presente revisão visa descrever as principais estratégias no controle de pragas, com a utilização de semioquímicos,com a listagem dos feromônios comercialmente disponíveis, seus alvos de ação e formulações, com análise de desafios e perspectivas na área. DOI: 10.5935/1984-6835.20150068Agrobusiness has a pivotal role worldwide and mainly in the Brazilian economy. Several agricultural pests cause expressive economical damage. The non-restricted use of highly toxic insecticides for several decades has provoked negative effects in the environment and the poisoning of non-targeted species. For these reasons, Integrated Pest Management was created, with a great support of semiochemicals, compounds or mixtures of compounds with specific action on pests, from which, pheromones are the principal components. The present review aims to describe the principal approaches in pest control, using semiochemicals, listing the main commercially available pheromones, their targets and formulations, with analysis of challenges and perspectives in the area. DOI: 10.5935/1984-6835.2015006

The search for efficient oil spill remediation techniques leads to the use of physical, chemical, and biological methods, featuring both natural and modified lipophilic materials. Kapok fibers (Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaerth) have been studied as a result of their unusual natural oil sorption capacity, which can be improved even further through physical or chemical treatments that augment their rugosity and alter their functional properties. Furthermore, the exact role of fiber morphology is not completely clear regarding the sorption process. Hence, this study investigated the efficacy of kapok fibers using different treatments, based on chemical and physical approaches, and characterized using advanced techniques (FTIR, SEM, AFM), aiming to improve the understanding of application possibilities in oil contamination scenarios. The results indicate that treatments using a low thermal intensity and low concentration do not lead to variation in sorption properties nor in surface structural features. Fiber rugosity varied from 4.40 to 12.35 nm, whereas an excessive increase in roughness was observed when the material was subject to more extreme conditions, such as a temperature of 120 °C and high concentrations (2.0 M) of both acid or alkali, accompanied by a loss in functionality and affecting the material sorption capacity. Thus, the study provides conditions to suggest that these treatments are not necessary for this type of material when inserted into sorption processes.