Institute of Fruit Tree and Tea Science of the National Agriculture and Research Organization (NIFTS), based at Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki prefecture, made an announcement on August 30 that NIFTS successfully developed a new technology for preventing moths from flying to fruit trees by using supersonic waves similar to those emitted by bats.
The technology was experimented against moths called “Conogethes punctiferalis,” causing damage to fruits, and the Institute found out that the supersonic waves are effective for reducing moth’s flying down to less than one-sixth of the usual flying in the orchard.
It is expected that the technology will be useful for fruit growers to decrease use of agrochemicals against the moths in their orchards. The moth preventing device is scheduled to be on the market in a couple of years.
Most species of moth fly away or stop flying when they sense the supersonic waves emitted by their natural enemies of bats.
Fruits producers will be able to prevent female moths from flying into their orchards to lay their eggs on the leaves of fruit trees or other farm crops by spreading out bat’s supersonic waves artificially produced by the preventing device over the farmland.