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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » Vegetable Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #375342
Research Project: Cranberry Genetics and Insect Management

Location: Vegetable Crops Research

Title: Drones that deliver: Pheromone-based mating disruption deployed via uncrewed aerial vehicles in U.S. cranberries

Author
item LUCK, BRIAN - University Of Wisconsin
item CHASEN, ELISSA - University Of Wisconsin
item WILLIAMS, PARKER - University Of Wisconsin
item Steffan, Shawn

Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/8/2021
Publication Date: 6/28/2021
Citation: Luck, B.D., Chasen, E.M., Williams, P.J., Steffan, S.A. 2021. Drones that deliver: Pheromone-based mating disruption deployed via uncrewed aerial vehicles in U.S. cranberries. Journal of Economic Entomology. 114(5):1910-1916. https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toab068.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toab068

Interpretive Summary: While drones often represent novel, valuable tools for crop surveillance in the US, it is much less common to hear of drones being used to deliver pest management technologies. Here, we report on the results of a research project in which a mating disruption product was delivered by drones that had been programed to autonomously fly prescribed routes over US cranberry acreage.

Technical Abstract: ranberry fruitworm (Acrobasis vaccinii) and blackheaded fireworm (Rhopobota naevana) threaten cranberry production annually by causing fruit damage, degrading the quality of the crop. Pesticide applications to control these insects occur up to four times during the growing season, which are very costly to producers and have the potential to contaminate surface waters. Mating disruption technology has been shown to provide control of these pest in the cranberry production system, with the potential to minimize, if not eliminate, pesticide applications. During the 2016 growing season, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was investigated as a means to apply pheromones loaded into a thick paraffin emulsion. Traditional agricultural equipment (sprayers or spreaders) are not capable of applying the paraffin emulsion production cranberry beds due to the product’s highly viscous, paste-like consistency. One objective of the study was to retrofit a UAV with an extruding device that had been engineered to deliver the pheromone-loaded paraffin at regular intervals during flight. An even but sparse application of the SPLAT product was achieved with this application method, however the increased mass of the retrofitted UAV limited flight times to less than 20 minutes. The other objective of the study was to measure the degree of mating disruption achieved by the UAV-applied pheromones. Lure-baited insect traps were deployed to assess the capacity of male moths to track pheromone plumes within the cranberry beds. Cranberry fruitworm and blackheaded fireworm moths caught in the traps were greatly reduced post-SPLAT application compared to pre-SPLAT application indicating that the treated beds had adequate coverage of the pheromone to cause mating disruption. This application method is currently not feasible for production scale deployment in cranberries due to inadequacies in battery life and lifting capacity of this particular UAV.