VisiLure® technology from RESCUE!

The VisiLure product line from RESCUE! looks pretty, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.

The “more” is science. With the electro-retinogram (ERG) in our insect research lab, RESCUE! scientists invented VisiLure technology  to create traps that lure bugs with visual cues.

Up until 2013, RESCUE! only used scent attractants – either pheromones or feeding lures – to draw insects to our traps. To create these scent-based traps, our scientists employ an Electroantennagraphic detector (EAD) to measure insects' antennal responses to different smells.

Now, using the ERG machine, we can create adhesive-based traps that lure bugs with sight, rather than scent.

Using the ERG, RESCUE! scientists measured photoreceptor responses in flies’ retinas to different wavelengths of visual stimuli to identify the most attractive colors and intensities. Further lab and field behavioral experiments indicated that the color patterns and contrasts mimicking the natural visual characteristics of flies were most appealing.

Flies have large compound eyes that don’t focus, so they see everything as a blurry image. The 3-D pattern and color simulate an image on which the flies can better focus.

Four adhesive-based traps incorporate RESCUE! VisiLure technology: FlyPad, Indoor Fly TrapStik, Deck & Patio Fly TrapStik,  Wasp TrapStik, and Carpenter Bee TrapStik.