Sustainable laser-based technology for insect pest control

R Gaetani,V Dufour,V Lacotte,A Heddi,G Duport,K Gaget,D Vincent,F Calevro,P Da Silva,A Clavel,B Masenelli

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-90782-7

Abstract

Aphids damage directly or indirectly cultures by feeding and spreading diseases, leading to huge economical losses. So far, only the use of pesticides can mitigate their impact, causing severe health and environmental issues. Hence, innovative eco-friendly and low-cost solutions must be promoted apart from chemical control. Here, we have investigated the use of laser radiation as a reliable solution. We have analyzed the lethal dose required to kill 90% of a population for two major pest aphid species (Acyrthosiphon pisum and Rhopalosiphum padi). We showed that irradiating insects at an early stage (one-day old nymph) is crucial to lower the lethal dose without affecting plant growth and health. The laser is mostly lethal, but it can also cause insect stunting and a reduction of survivors’ fecundity. Nevertheless, we did not notice any significant visible effect on the offspring of the surviving irradiated generation. The estimated energy cost and the harmless effect of laser radiation on host plants show that this physics-based strategy can be a promising alternative to chemical pesticides.

Highlights

Aphids damage directly or indirectly cultures by feeding and spreading diseases, leading to huge economical losses
We have investigated the use of laser radiation for insect control as a part of a global program that includes an initial step to detect insect pests by their spectral profiles
To assess a global strategy using a laser, the lethal dose to ensure the annihilation of 90% of the population (LD 90) after one day was first determined

Summary

Introduction

Aphids damage directly or indirectly cultures by feeding and spreading diseases, leading to huge economical losses. UV light is well-known to induce DNA damage at high irradiances[24,25] Such a method is not suited for pesticide substitution since it requires a long time before the DNA damage can develop and lead to a global lethal effect over a large population (e.g. an irradiation of 48 h24, corresponding to a global delivered energy dose of 80 J cm−2). We have investigated the use of laser radiation for insect control as a part of a global program that includes an initial step to detect insect pests by their spectral profiles This strategy has been proposed and patented recently[29], and is attracting interest on an European scale[30,31]. The energy must be delivered on a short-time scale (< 100 ms) so that a wide portion of a crop field can be treated in a reasonable time (one day)

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Conclusion