Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) have been widely used to treat agricultural crops throughout the world, and spray against disease-carrying pests like mosquitos. Now researchers are expanding trial use of drones to control harmful insects by dropping enemy species on them.
Bug vs. bug crop protection technique delivered by drone
The use of bug against bug is not new, but is expanding in terms of degree and sophistication, according to a report in the June edition of the Entomological Society of America’s Journal of Economic Entomology. DroneDJ has written about other drone applications in the battle against harmful insects, but not the research now gaining speed in North America. That involves deploying specialized agricultural craft to drop natural enemies of destructive pests in appropriate situations, and thereby limit or entirely eliminate the need for traditional insecticides.
The technique could have bigger payoffs than most observers might suspect. Harmful insects inflict more than $100 billion in damage to crops each year in the US alone. Agriculture’s lucrative organic sub-sector is particularly vulnerable, since rules determining what can be sold as naturally grown are generally strict, but particularly draconian when it comes to pesticides. So specialists are looking to multiply applications of their equation “harmful pests + enemy insects = fewer bugs all around.”
Continue reading: https://dronedj.com/2021/08/19/drones-airdrop-enemy-bugs-on-harmful-insects-in-crops/
Bug vs. bug crop protection technique delivered by drone
The use of bug against bug is not new, but is expanding in terms of degree and sophistication, according to a report in the June edition of the Entomological Society of America’s Journal of Economic Entomology. DroneDJ has written about other drone applications in the battle against harmful insects, but not the research now gaining speed in North America. That involves deploying specialized agricultural craft to drop natural enemies of destructive pests in appropriate situations, and thereby limit or entirely eliminate the need for traditional insecticides.
The technique could have bigger payoffs than most observers might suspect. Harmful insects inflict more than $100 billion in damage to crops each year in the US alone. Agriculture’s lucrative organic sub-sector is particularly vulnerable, since rules determining what can be sold as naturally grown are generally strict, but particularly draconian when it comes to pesticides. So specialists are looking to multiply applications of their equation “harmful pests + enemy insects = fewer bugs all around.”
Continue reading: https://dronedj.com/2021/08/19/drones-airdrop-enemy-bugs-on-harmful-insects-in-crops/
