China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate • Hacker News Board

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#31

Post by sukilot » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC

ticmasta wrote: post #12

whatshisface wrote: post #2

Drones have very short flight times and can't carry that much weight. Can this really be cheaper than driving a tractor around?

The challenge is getting the tractors into the right locations and keeping their operators out of the spray. It would be harder to get precise application so they are more likely to use more and higher concentrations of pesticide. The most cost-effective response using traditional application of pesticides is probably bigger drones (aka a flying tractor)

Remote-control tractor seems simple enough.

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#32

Post by sukilot » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

Willson50 wrote: post #6

This seems dangerous in the hands of a nationalistic government.

Everything is dangerous in the hands of someone you don't trust.

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#33

Post by ETHisso2017 » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 5:53 PM UTC

Willson50 wrote: post #6

This seems dangerous in the hands of a nationalistic government.

Only dangerous if you're a fall armyworm...

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#34

Post by gingabriska » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

Why not use a laser to kill these pests by melting/vaporising their brain or heart assuming it exists?

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#35

Post by benkarst » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 5:58 PM UTC

Hmm, can we make the title more a little more click baity?

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#36

Post by Animats » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 6:01 PM UTC

Are they just aerial spraying, like crop-dusting, or are they identifying individual army worms and zapping them?

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#37

Post by davidhyde » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 6:06 PM UTC

That’s got to win the click bait title of the day award! Despite the alarming title, it’s refreshing to read a neutral article about China. Neither good nor bad, just interesting.

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#38

Post by goda90 » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 6:10 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #36

Are they just aerial spraying, like crop-dusting, or are they identifying individual army worms and zapping them?

Aerial spraying at night which is when the worms feed. Normal insecticide application happens during the day and to be effective they spray a lot more.

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#39

Post by pugworthy » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #2

Drones have very short flight times and can't carry that much weight. Can this really be cheaper than driving a tractor around?

You don't buy one big one and have it do your whole field. You buy lots of them and have them do the field as a swarm.

Consider that a row-crop tractor can cost $100-300,000 (see footnote). You can buy A LOT of little drones for that much money. Or a smaller number of drones and a number of swappable battery packs.

$300,000 worth of spraying drones could cover a huge amount of area in a lot less time, and with a lot more efficiency.

Footnote: Pricing based on 2014 article at https://www.businessinsider.com/farm-equipment-prices-2014-5

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#40

Post by v77 » Tue, Sep 03, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

ben7799 wrote: post #3

This is pretty interesting to read... I think our media normally ignores North American pests travelling to other parts of the world. Around here we have a lot of talk about pests that have arrived from China that affect our local plants but not many that talk about our pests that have invaded China. Locally I've had to deal with the Asian Winter Moth decimating trees in my yard and throughout the area I live in. Tha…

Invasive species and their impact are relative to your area, of course.

Of equal interest is the use of non-native species to provide more genetic diversity. In Canada, we are using lots of 'Amur' trees and bushes from Russian and Northern China to increase diversity of our treestock after the huge diebacks caused by Dutch Elm, Emerald Ash Borer and other imported pests.