INSECT control company Exosect has just won approval to market its groundbreaking moth control system for organic farmers.

Codling moths are an expensive pest for apple and pear farmers. The larvae, also known as apple maggots, burrow into maturing fruit and eat it from the inside, rendering it worthless.

The pest can decimate entire crops and has long been a headache for farmers.

But Exosect, based at Chilworth Science Park, has a green solution that doesn't involve pesticides and exploits the moth's mating behaviour.

Called Exosex, the product uses powerful moth pheromones to attract male Codling moths to its traps, where they become covered in a powder laced with more of the irresistible female pheromone.

The hapless males then fly off, confused by the powerful scent all around, attracting male admirers of their own and repelling females.

Over the course of a couple of seasons the environmentally friendly method, which costs equivalent to or less than chemical pesticides, has a dramatic impact on moth populations.

The company has had a success with a similar problem and an epidemic of the Browntailed moth in Portsmouth.

The hairs of the brown tailed's caterpillar, which broke off and were blown around by the wind, triggered painful rashes on the skin of whoever

they touched and led to an avalanche of complaints to the city council.

Exosect's pheromone-based method brought the outbreak under control.

"We let the bugs do the work for us," said Exosect's operations director Philip Harris.

"We have done more than 90 trials across 21 countries and it has been very successful."

Exosect is a spin-out company from Southampton University.

It is based at Southampton Enterprise Hub, which provides high-tech start-ups with affordable accommodation and facilities.