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Innovative Real-time Monitoring and Pest control for Insects (INSECTLIFE)
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: Dec 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Background Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a sustainable approach to pest control that combines the use of prevention, avoidance, monitoring and suppression strategies to maintain pest populations below economically damaging levels. IPM can also minimise pest resistance and harmful effects of pest control on human health and environmental resources. It includes monitoring techniques, such as pest scouting, degree-day modelling and weather forecasting. These help to target suppression strategies (using precision techniques) and avoid routine preventive treatments. High-level IPM suppression systems include effective agro-chemicals and cost-effective biological and cultural controls, as well as the lowest pesticide levels needed for the cropping system. A previous LIFE project, MEDAPHON, developed a soil biological monitoring tool for continuous, automatic remote monitoring of soil micro arthropods. The so-called EDAPHOLOGsystem is a novel, online, in-situ monitoring system consisting of opto-electronic probes, radio/internet data loggers and a central server. The EDAPHOLOG probes installed in the soil allow the remote sensoring of soil micro arthropods activities and current real-time data analysis via the EDAPHOWEB server application. Objectives The INSECTLIFE project plans to further develop the EDAPHOLOG pest management tool and enable the system to detect pests and beneficial insects living in above ground biotypes. The project aims to assemble the different CSALOMON® pheromone traps used for certain pest species and EDAPHOLOG sensors into a new construction. This would have the advantage of allowing detection of pest emergence and population changes in an immediate and automatic way, as the pheromone baits are pest-specific. EDAPHOLOG probe sensors inserted into CSALOMON® traps would detect only the targeted pest. Moreover, this automatic counting technique will provide much more accurate data for the growers than traditional manual counting methods. Specific objectives are to: Manufacture a prototype of this system and testing it under field conditions; Measure and demonstrate the substantial reduction of agricultural loads as a result of the use of the system; Provide insect population dynamics and pest forecasting by using local meteorological data measurements and forecasts; and Demonstrate the usefulness and environmental benefits in field trials at four pilot areas, the results of which will be presented in a number of professional forums, in service trainings and postgraduate courses. Expected results: Development of ARTHROLOG prototype and its components; Demonstration of 200 traps for air, ground and crawling insects. These traps are mechanical structures based on CSALOMON® pheromone traps; Demonstration of 200 different sensors including daylight sensors, capacitive sensors, CCD type sensors, IR opto-electronic sensors (that operate only in dark sensor field); Demonstration of 75 loggers that record and transmit data via SMS or the internet to the central server; Creation of a DATAWEB central database and web application; Evaluated findings from several years of field and demonstration tests covering four different sites (including orchards and arable land); Demonstration of the precision of the probes and the usefulness of the tool; Reduction in the use of pesticides in the project sites; and Demonstration of the overall system’s cost efficiency.

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