D3101: Evaluation of manual and remote monitoring tools for insect pests of agriculture and forestry importance

Monitoring insect pests is an essential step to improve our knowledge and ability to manage serious insect pests in agriculture and forestry importance. There are numerous insect monitoring tools available for certain insect species, however, some of them work better than others. In recent years, automatic traps have been designed to capture and monitor many insect pests in open fields. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of automatic traps for remote monitoring of insect pests. The automatic traps are outfitted with cameras and connected to a specific app that updates data every 24 hours. Our preliminary findings suggest that these traps reduce the labor, time, and cost to monitor insect pests. In contrast, the conventional traps have many limitations; for example, these need service regularly, and data collection occurs at the site. The remote monitoring tools help to determine the level of infestation and facilitate evidence-based pest management decisions remotely. The current study was conducted in Hernando, Leon, and Gadsden counties. Several conventual and automatic traps were installed in the field and evaluated for their application in agriculture and forestry.