Technological traps to control fruit flies in Chile

 

The Agricultural and Livestock Service of Chile (SAG) seeks to eradicate South American fruit flies (Anastrepha fraterculus) by means of remote solar traps, equipped with a camera and autonomous climate sensors. According to Fernando Chiffelle, Director of SAG for the region of Tarapaca, traps control the insect and are also capable of collecting data.

 

"These new traps incorporate technology that will allow us, for example, to send information over the phone to find out what kind of fly has dropped, optimizing important human resources, such as employees, as they will not have to travel to extreme locations to check traps," he said.

 

Marco Muñoz, head of the Department of Plant Protection at SAG, said the "device consists of a trap that has been added to a platform that has its photovoltaic cells in the upper base that gives it autonomy to operate".

 

For him, some problems that had not been clarified earlier, such as the environmental conditions favored by this plague to carry out the attacks, can now finally be remedied. In addition, he believed that this was a tool that could contribute to the advancement of citriculture on a global level.

 

"It has a temperature and humidity sensor and, in addition, it has a camera to take photographs, which through an algorithm can identify if the capture corresponds to a fruit fly or another insect, thus allowing a quick diagnosis. Finally, this type of tool allows us to explore its use in other quarantine pests for our country," he concluded.