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

bloomberg.com

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

#41

Post by yowlingcat »

pugworthy wrote: post #39
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…

Probably more reliable to maintain, too. A single drone or even a substantial minority failing only lowers swarm throughput rather than completely taking the whole thing out of commission.

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

#43

Post by ScoJoh »

Bjorkbat wrote: post #26

Don't get too excited. We don't know the full story on the 2% that lived. For all we know, they could become tomorrow's 20% that developed pesticide resistance and rampaged through China's countryside.

That was exactly my thought. It's like DDT on Mosquitoes. The ones that survived were resistant, so when they bred, all their offspring were resistant.

Could end up being the same issue here, so this could easily become a FAR FAR worse issue in the next generation or two of these worms.

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

#44

Post by conjectures »

gene-h wrote: post #27

This isn't that new, Yamaha has been selling a remotely controlled helicopter specifically made for applying insectcide on crops since 1991[0]. They were even used in aerial robotics research for a bit[1]. Helicopters are particularly nice for spraying crops because you have a nice turbulent downwash that pushes the pesticide onto the crops. [0] https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/motorsports/pages/precisio... [1] http…

Were they autonomous?

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

#45

Post by febeling »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #16

Ah yes, Bayer Crop Science. The science division of a company that likes Monsanto's business model so much, they bought Monsanto. Good to see they found a fresh market for releasing "low-toxicity insecticide" into the food chain.

Understand the sentiment. But applying it selectively seems to be desirable, no matter how euphemistic the low-toxicity part is.

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

#46

Post by Loughla »

sukilot wrote: post #31
ticmasta wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We pretty much already have remote control tractors via autosteer. The operator is a meat weight making sure nothing catches on fire.

Autosteer, of course, is only useful off of public roads, what with all the pesky pedestrians and other vehicles.

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

#47

Post by macintux »

unnouinceput wrote: post #42

So how this compares with having a very low tech solution instead, like the one using pipes in the field that can spray the insecticide in the same amount as a drone does?

I didn’t see much useful information to base this on, but drones could theoretically be much more accurately targeted and thus use less pesticide.

Plus, a far more portable solution when you’re dealing with something that’s moving quickly across a region.

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

#48

Post by zupzupper »

seszett wrote: post #7
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…

I guess most people just know best about what pests affect their area. Here in France, phylloxera is well known for having decimated our vines after having arrived from America (what saved the French wine industry was grafting our species on the roots of phylloxera-resistant but unpalatable American vines). Same for the Argentinian ants that have founded the supercolony along the Mediterranean coast.

> phylloxera-resistant but unpalatable American vines

Hey now. You send me a palatable French wine and I'll send you a palatable American one =)

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

#49

Post by mxuribe »

> ...The fall army worm, a crop-devouring pest, has spread from the Americas to Africa and Asia...

So, is this like a new version of the Stuxnet worm? But in this case, its delivery mechanism uses almost-nano-size robots, and its target is foreign crops and not centrifuges?

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

#50

Post by tejtm »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #21
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…

One that concerns me in North America is the Pine Beetle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle ) and its native, but affected by recent climate events. The current infestation is actually causing the BC forests to be nearly a net carbon negative! (edit: to clarify I mean negative as in they're increasing the carbon output of the forests compared to the carbon sink. May be wording it wrong)

I think you got it right, forests are only carbon sinks as long as the trees are alive then they release their sequestered carbon as they rot. Typical tree dying is sporadic event and can be taken back up by other trees in a normal situation.

Here the tree death is not sporadic and there are not enough growing things to re-uptake the all the released carbon so it enters circulation.

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