9 research outputs found
A Preliminary Study of Image Analysis for Parasite Detection on Honey Bees
International Conference Image Analysis and Recognition (ICIAR 2018, PĂłvoa de Varzim, Portugal
Mating disruption by vibrational signals: state of the field and perspectives
Until a few years ago, the concept of mating disruption had been
exclusively associated with the use of pheromones to reduce population density
of insect pests. Since the early 2000s, a novel approach has been proposed to the
scientific community: vibrational mating disruption (VMD). The novelty is the
use of disturbance vibrations to disrupt the mating behavior of insect pests that
communicate by means of substrate-borne vibrations. This research falls within
the new field of biotremology and it brought the VMD from a theoretical concept
to practical open field experimentation: in 2017, VMD was applied in an organic
vineyard in Northern Italy to control leafhopper pests’ population density. This
achievement gave us the opportunity to report the state of the field for the method, to
discuss the ongoing research and to make a comparison between pheromone mating
disruption (PMD) and VMD. In this chapter, we review the salient moments that led
to the field application of VMD. Then, we discuss the VMD characteristics and we
provide a benchmark, using as reference the traditional PMD to discuss similarities
and differences. Furthermore, we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of
applying VMD to commercial crops. We are convinced that the first vibrational
vineyard is a starting point and that biotremology will provide many innovative
possibilities for farmers to control pests in the future. We also think that the introduction of electronic devices in the vineyard could be a trailblazer for the
diffusion of smart technology in viticulture, thus improving its general management