ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract. Aphid infestations pose a serious threat to the health of many different crops. Presently, controlling aphid populations in crops requires regular spraying with pesticides that increase upkeep costs and can have negative environmental impacts if used too liberally. This paper aims to explore an alternative approach to pest control. We hope to develop a method for controlling pests using lasers as an alternative to harmful chemicals. Such a system would have no negative environmental impacts and could continue to function without needing to be refilled as long as a steady power supply is available. We hypothesized that a specific exposure duration would be sufficient to kill aphids without harming the host plant. To test this we exposed individual aphids to a 500 mW laser for varying durations and recorded mortality rates. A second group of aphids were placed into the same testing apparatus but the laser was not powered on. Our results show that a three second laser pulse is enough to create a significant increase in the mortality rate of the exposed group. Previous studies suggest that this type of laser will not have a negative effect on plant growth, but more research is necessary into the long term effect that this exposure could have on different species of plants over the course of their lifespan. In the future we will also explore different wavelengths of laser to maximize the aphids absorption of energy while minimizing the absorptivity of the host plant. Our results demonstrate that this approach shows promise as an alternative to conventional pesticides for pest control.