An electronic device has been developed to sniff out whitefly attacks on tomato plants, allowing farmers to rescue their plants before potential infestations get out of control.
Researchers from Agricultural Research Service, together with scientists from Ohio State University and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, have created what they call “E-Nose.” The device detects some of the chemicals that tomato plants release when they are attacked by whiteflies. Tomatoes release such chemicals, known as volatile organic compounds, to alert other plants of the presence of the flies.
Researchers hope E-Nose will alert growers to the presence of whiteflies early, so infestations can be treated with pesticides and other measures can be taken.
The prototype is designed to be hung in greenhouses, but the creators have plans to improve the devices.
"The future E-Nose system can be designed as a hand-held device for growers to take samples from individual plants,” Heping Zhu, an agricultural engineer with the ARS Application Technology Research Unit, said in a release. Down the road, it is hoped the device can be designed "as a computer-controlled cloud networking system which consists of multiple smart sensors placed at different locations in the greenhouse, so the computer can automatically collect samples and monitor infestations 24 hours a day."
Whiteflies are one of the most insidious insect pests for fresh tomatoes in the U.S. The tomato crop was valued at $721 million in 2020.
The bug clings to the underside of leaves on the tomato plants. The whiteflies thrive on the absorption of sap from the leaves. After they've wreaked havoc on a plant, the leaves turn yellow and curl up or drop off. By then, the damage has been done, as whitefly feeding can interfere with ripening of the fruits. They also can transmit other diseases to the plants.
Farmers currently have had to rely on labor-intensive monitoring, where they checked for the pests through a sampling of plant leaves. They could also set up sticky traps that are designed to let them gauge the population of the pest.
E-Nose will allow them to get real-time alerts about the presence of the bugs.
The device relies on a circuit board that converts ambient scents into digital signals, according to the release. These signals are interpreted to see if they match up to known "smell-fingerprints" of the VOCs. If they match up, that means the pest is present.
The E-Nose also successfully sniffed out tomato-infesting aphids and insect pests that affect other greenhouse crops.
