Rapid Assessment of Insect Pest Outbreak Using Drones: A Case Study with Spodoptera exigua (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Soybean Fields.

ABSTRACT: Rapid assessment of crop damage is essential for successful management of insect pest outbreaks. In this study, we investigated the use of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and image analyses to assess an outbreak of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), that occurred in soybean fields in South Korea. A rotary-wing UAS was deployed to obtain a series of aerial images over 31 soybean blocks. The images were stitched together to generate composite imagery, followed by image analyses to quantify soybean defoliation. An economic analysis was conducted to compare the cost of the aerial survey with that of a conventional ground survey. The results showed that the aerial survey precisely estimated the defoliation compared to the ground survey, with an esti

SUBMITTER: Park YL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10299355 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature