Electronic Traps for Automated Monitoring of Insect Populations

We present preliminary work towards developing electronic traps for automated monitoring of insect populations. The proposed system has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of integrated pest management programs by automating the labor-intensive operations of monitoring insect populations. In addition, the proposed system will provide unprecedented real-time, high-resolution insect population data to growers. We present the design and implementation of two electronic trap prototypes, one based on light dependent resistor (LDR) sensors and the other based on infrared (IR) sensors. Both prototypes use a commercially available bucket trap as a base frame. Using an on-board microcontroller, the electronic traps are able to detect target insects entering the trap and record each event with a corresponding timestamp. We report the results of field tests that were performed in apple orchards in Pennsylvania and Washington in 2009.