Semi-Automated Monitoring of Western Flower Thrips

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Western Flower thrips (WFT) are an important agricultural pest of several crops including protected vegetables and soft fruit crops (1). WFT cause direct damage by feeding on the plant as well as through transmission of different diseases. WFT affected crops not only reduce the crop yield but also affect the crop quality e.g. deformed strawberries thereby reducing the market value of the crops. WFT have developed resistance to the most chemical insecticides and currently WFT control strategies are dependent on effective WFT monitoring and the use of its natural enemies e.g. predatory mites.Success of these natural enemies relies on their application at a time to coincide with the presence of susceptible life stages of WFT. Application of natural enemies in advance of the emergence of WFT leads to death of these enemies whilst a late application might not be enough to suppress the WFT population. Currently, farmers use manual monitoring of WFT to determine the pest population which is not only laborious but also result in false alarms or inaccurate data collection. Application of machine learning and artificial intelligence offers an opportunity to develop a semi-automated WFT monitoring systemThis project brings together artificial intelligence -based monitoring model to monitor WFT population. The monitoring tools will use pheromones to attract WFT to traps fitted with cameras and sensors. Different trap design and imaging techniques will be used to optimise the WFT capture and image quality for automated WFT monitoring. Data from these traps will help in identification and quantification of WFT hotspots enabling farmers to apply control measures timely and precisely.The project is timely as Covid-19 related restrictions and Brexit have limited the availability of skilled labour for manual WFT monitoring. Our innovation will fill this gap and help UK growers to produce quality strawberries.The project will help contribute significantly to reduce crop losses thus improving food production per unit area. The life cycle analysis will be used to demonstrate the effect of proposed technology in reducing carbon footprint of strawberry production. This study offers added value as technologies optimized here would offer potential to develop similar crop protection against a range of pest and diseases.1.van Lenteren J.C. & Loomans A.J.M. (1998) pests & diseases, vol 2, International conference, UK, pp 401--408