This is scientific American's 60 second science. I'm Christopher Intalyata. Got a minute?

Ten years ago a bacterial disease began to eat away at the Florida citrus crop.

It's called Huanglong- bing or citrus greening and

it causes misshapen bitter green fruits and eventually dead trees. Since 2005

the infections estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage.

And the microbe did all that damage with the unwitting help of a tiny winged insect,

the citrus silid, which spreads the bacterium as it feeds.

But now researchers at the USDA and the University of Florida have come up with a pesticide-free

way to battle the insect by disrupting its ability to find a mate.

When male solids are looking for love, they beat their wings,

sending vibrations along a tree's branches.

Nearby females pick up that signal

and send back one of their own, which tells

males to come hither. The researchers eavesdropped on that duet with a microphone

rigged to an electronic microcontroller and when the controller identified a male's call, it sent out a decoy female response, more quickly than real females could respond.

And that imposter's call actually lured males to the device, where instead of a mate, they found fly paper.

The researchers presented the results at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Jacksonville, Florida.

The technique isn't ready for the limelight just yet.

For one, though the decoy call does fool the bugs,

they're still adept at avoiding the flypaper.

But the researchers say this sort of signal jamming interference might be able to disrupt

the insect's ability to find a mate cutting overall numbers of the pest.

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