Most of us probably have that gardener in our lives – you know, the one who talks to the plants? Maybe they even listen to the plants.
Entomologist Emily Bick is taking that one step further – she puts microphones out into the fields, to listen to plants – for the sounds of insect pests.
Bick, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, is developing a device called the Insect Eavesdropper, which takes insect pest scouting to a whole new level.
Unlike traditional visual monitoring methods – plant inspection, sticky cards, sweep nets – the acoustic approach takes less time, and doesn’t depend on pests showing themselves. Their noises give them away.
What noises? The answer depends on the species of pest.
For corn rootworm, one of the pests Bick is working on, the giveaway is the sound of the insect chewing on the plant’s roots. The vibrations are transmitted up through the stalks, where the mic picks them up. The system detects the pests while they’re still hidden underground.
What gives aphids away is the tiny slurping sounds they make as they suck fluids from the plant – similar to the sound of finishing a milkshake, says Bick.
The technology, she says, also detects insect pests much earlier than visual monitoring. That gives producers more lead time to mount a response before the pests reach damaging levels.
Bick is working to commercialize the Insect Eavesdropper, with numerous trials currently underway. She hopes to have it marketable within a couple of years.
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