Unattended Trapping of Whiteflies Driven out of Tomato Plants onto a Yellow-Colored Double-Charged Dipolar Electric Field Screen

Abstract

An unattended pest control system was developed to eliminate whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) that settled on greenhouse tomato plants. The system exploited the whitefly’s habit of flying up from a plant that was mechanically tapped and then heading toward yellow objects. Remote-controlled dollies with arms that tapped plants and yellow-colored double-charged dipolar electric field screens (YDD-EFSs) (oppositely electrified transparent insulator tubes filled with yellow-colored water) attracted and trapped the whiteflies. The whiteflies flew up when the plants were mechanically tapped with the dolly’s arms during reciprocating movements and were subsequently trapped by YDD-EFSs that were automatically translocated to the target plants. The system was applied to rows of whitefly-infested tomato plants. Almost all whiteflies transferred to plants were successfully recovered by two dollies moving on either side of the plants, approaching all plants individually (via programmed movement). In summary, we present an efficient unattended method for controlling whiteflies on tomato plants in greenhouses.