A Dutch salad grower is using a swarm of dozens of palm-sized drones to seek and destroy moths that are a threat to crops in his greenhouses.
The adapted drones use cameras and smart technology to scan the airspace in the greenhouses and destroy the insects with their rotors in head-on collisions.
Koppert Cress chief executive Rob Baan, who does not use pesticides on his plants, turned to technology to bring down the moths that produce caterpillars that harm his crops.
He says that 50 drone "sentries" will be enough to tackle unwanted pests.
The system is smart enough to distinguish between the moths and other insects that are beneficial for his plants.
"You don't want to kill a ladybug, because a ladybug is very helpful against aphids," Mr Baan told Associated Press.
"So they should kill the bad ones, not the good ones. And the good ones are sometimes very expensive – I pay at least 50 cents for one bumblebee, so I don't want them to kill my bumblebees."
The drone system is the brainchild of former students from the Technical University in Delft, the Netherlands, who thought they might be able to use drones to kill mosquitoes buzzing around their rooms at night.
It was taken up by technology start-up PATS Indoor Drone Solutions. "It's still a development product, but we ... have very good results,” chief executive Bram Tijmons said.
“We are targeting moths and we are taking them out every night in an autonomous way without human intervention."
