University of Guelph researchers have developed a smartphone application to help combat soybean aphids.
Aphid Advisor is the product of a research team co-led by Rebecca Hallett, an associate professor at the Ontario university’s School of Environmental Sciences.
The program goes a step further than other ag-related apps because it takes field-tested research and provides producers with a platform to apply that knowledge.
In other words, it will tell farmers when to spray their fields.
“It’s on the cutting edge. Those applications will get better and better,” said Peter Gredig of AgNition, who worked with Hallett to develop the app.
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Aphids can take over a plant, resulting in plant stunting and lower yields.
An effective and well-timed pesticide application is key to managing the population, but so too are the creature’s natural predators. And that’s what Hallett’s research team set out to measure beginning in 2006.
Producers are advised to keep aphid populations to an average of 250 per plant. Hallett’s research adds another number into the mix that can assist producers.
“We decided to incorporate the impact of natural enemies into the action threshold and developed what we call a dynamic action threshold, so the actual value at which you decide to spray changes,” said Hallett.
Aphids have many predators in the field and they each consume different amounts of aphids. The researchers used this information to create the natural enemy unit, which measures how many aphids are consumed in total on an average day.
Enter the smartphone application. Users input two pieces of information: the average number of aphids per plant and the number of predators per plant. The application helps users identify the different types of predators and calculates the natural enemy unit.
Hallet said combining these two pieces of information can challenge the previous practice of simply spraying at a threshold of 250 and help time pesticide application appropriately.
Spraying could be delayed or even avoided if the app determines that there are enough natural enemies to keep the aphid population in check. This would save the producer pesticides and money and preserve the natural enemy population.
Hallett said research shows that the new threshold can produce the same yields as the conventional one.
The team’s work was completed last year and the smartphone application was beta tested this year.
Weather is the only complicating factor because aphid population growth depends on temperature. Aphid Advisor makes recommendations based on 30-year temperature averages for southern Ontario. Hallett hopes a new version, which is expected to be ready next year, can download temperature forecasts for a specific region.
Aphid Advisor is available for download at www.aphidapp.com.
“We’re certainly hoping this will reach more people,” said Hallett.
