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Purdue develops high-tech insect trap

In the U.S. in 2010, crop growers lost $20-billion to insect damage and spent $4.5-billion on insecticides.

A new product being developed by Purdue researchers is making pest management more efficient.

The “Z-Trap” is a pheromone-baited device that counts the number of target insects captured and relays that information to the farmer via wireless technology.

This eliminates the labor intensive task of manually checking traps to monitor insect populations.

It also helps growers better control crop damage caused by insects and improve the use of insecticides.

The technology is currently being used to collect data on codling moths, Oriental fruit moths, and leaf rollers in apple orchards, but will eventually collect insect data from other types of crops.

The Z-Trap is being commercialized in the Purdue Research Park by Spensa Technologies.