Researchers led by University of California-Riverside Ph.D. student Joshua Reger examined the impact of mass-rearing, sterilization, and transportation methods that are part of the sterile insect technique on navel orangeworm (Amyelois transitella), a moth whose larvae decimates nut and citrus crops. The moths’ flight capacity is tested using a device called a flight mill, shown here in a netted enclosure. The mill features a thin arm of lightweight tubing that spins while mounted atop a post. The moth is attached to one arm and is counterbalanced by a dab of painter’s putty of the same weight on the opposite arm. Suspended by magnets and equipped with Teflon bearings, the arm spins as the moth flies, and a sensor records each revolution and thus flight distance. (Photo courtesy of Joshua Reger)