Location: Subtropical Horticulture Research
Project Number: 6038-22000-007-013-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Mar 1, 2022
End Date: Feb 9, 2024
Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research agreement is to apply automated detection algorithms to identify and detect tephritid fruit flies that threaten U.S. subtropical agriculture. Target pests include fruit flies that threaten to invade or have established in South Florida such as, but not limited to, Caribbean fruit fly and other Anastrepha spp., Oriental fruit fly, and Mediterranean fruit fly that cause significant damage to fruit crops. There is no intention for travel by either side involved in the execution of the project. All data is to be open, shared and published (on the latter, published, as appropriate)- just need it to be very clear that both sides should be sharing all data.
Approach:
Algorithms will be used as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) approach to automatically detect invasive species of tephiritid fruit flies and related pests of fruit crops that have established locally or pose significant invasive potential. Goal 2.A. stipulates to "develop an automated smart trap for fruit flies capable of detecting, counting, identifying species, and transmitting data to a centralized processing station to facilitate management decisions". The milestones toward this goal include comparing multiple smart trap designs, evaluating them in small field cages, followed by larger screened rooms and open field tests, with an ultimate goal of optimizing a final trap design and network to deploy in Florida agricultural systems.
