MONSTER, Netherlands (AP) – Dutch watercress producer Rob Baan has recruited high-tech helpers to fight a pest in his greenhouses: palm-sized drones seek and destroy moths that produce caterpillars that can chew on their crops.
“I have exclusive products where you don’t get certified to spray chemicals and I don’t want that,” said Baan in an interview in a greenhouse bathed in the pink glow of the LED lights that help his seedlings grow. His company, Koppert Cress, exports aromatic seedlings, plants and flowers to sophisticated restaurants around the world.
An enthusiast for innovative technology in his greenhouses, Baan turned to PATS Indoor Drone Solutions, a startup that is developing standalone drone systems like greenhouse sentinels, to add another layer of protection to his plants.
The drones themselves are basic, but they are driven by intelligent technology aided by special cameras that scan the airspace in greenhouses.
Drones instantly kill the moths by flying at them, destroying them in the air.
“So he sees the moth flying, he knows where the drone is … and then he just directs the drone towards the moth,” said PATS technical chief Kevin van Hecke.
There were no moths on a recent visit by The Associated Press to the greenhouse, but the company released a video recorded in a controlled environment that shows how an insect is instantly sprayed by a drone rotor.
The drones are part of a series of pest control systems in Baan’s greenhouses, which also include other insects, pheromone traps and bees.
The drone system is the brainchild of former students at the Technical University of Delft who came up with the idea after wondering if they could use drones to kill mosquitoes that buzzed in their rooms at night.
Baan says the drone’s control system is smart enough to distinguish between good and bad creatures.
“You don’t want to kill a ladybug, because a ladybug is very useful against aphids,” he said. “So they should kill the bad guys, not the good ones. And the good ones are sometimes very expensive – I pay at least 50 cents for a bee, so I don’t want them to kill my bees. “
The young company is still working on perfecting the technology.
“It is still a product in development, but … we have very good results. We target moths and we are eliminating moths every night autonomously, without human intervention, ”said PATS CEO Bram Tijmons. “I think it is a good step forward.”
Baan also recognizes that the system still needs refinement.
“I think they still need a lot of drones … but it will be manageable, it will be less,” he said. “I think they can make this greenhouse in the future, maybe with 50 small drones, and so it is very beneficial.”