Precision Agriculture
Pest phenology models
Are pest control treatments efficient?
Insecticides applied to an insect pest based on a calendar date or sampling results often fail to achieve the expected control and are a waste of resources.
For treatments to be efficient, it is necessary to take into account the development of the crop, the development of the pest and its population density.
Why?
Insect activity varies from year to year depending on the weather, mainly temperature. Insect body temperature and growth are affected by the ambient temperature.
Each species needs an accumulation of heat to reach certain life stages, such as egg hatching or adult flight.
Pests develop faster in warm climates than in cold climates, but the amount of heat needed to complete an organism's development does not vary.
What is the solution?
The values in degree-days interpret the heat accumulation of the pests. When used to determine the timing of treatment, they increase the effectiveness of an Integrated Pest Management program, and provide a cost-effective tool to reduce insect damage.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The values in degree-days reflect the heat accumulation of the pests. When used to determine the timing of treatment, they increase the effectiveness of an Integrated Pest Management program, and provide a cost-effective tool to reduce insect damage.
FuturCrop records daily the climatological data that affects your crops, analyzes them and informs you about the stage of development in which the pests are, the optimal time for their treatment and predicts the date on which you should do it.
Do you want to know the basics of the software? Then check the document FuturCrop. Decision Support System for Intagrated Pest Management.
PESTS PHENOLOGY
Institutional use for more than 50 years in the USA
Phenology models and the sum of degree-days are being used by several US Universities to predict the activity of pests for many decades. This functionality has been implemented in online tools that take advantage of data from weather stations and estimate the timing of pest activity at a specific location.
App features
FUTURCROP
Use of phenology models
Scientists have studied the biological development of insects in correlation with accumulated degree-days, discovering information about key developmental stages, such as egg hatching, adult flight, etc.
Insect models are useful when programming pesticide treatment because the entire life-cycle (or some important events) of the insect is known.
Scouting
Accumulated degree-days are useful for scheduling pest scouting, determining when to set traps, when to check for damage, when to take samples, etc.
FuturCrop also includes a description and photographs of the pest, which allows its identification and sampling instructions according to the development phase of the pest,
Prediction of the opportune moment to carry out the treatment
The use of pesticides means that the moment of its application is increasingly important, because some insect life stages are more susceptible to chemical treatment, such as young larvae or mealybugs.
Degree-days are used to predict these phases of life for a given location
Pesticide applications must be precisely timed to maximize efficacy and minimize the number of applications required.
Risk and development information provided increases efficiency, helps reduce environmental impact, and results in cost savings of more than 30% of total pest control4
Interface
Easy-to-understand information
FuturCrop Screenshots
Contact
- info@futurcrop.com
- +34 931 28 92
- Françesc Maciá 41 - Sabadell (Barcelona)
