Drone-Assisted Pest Control

This is a South Africa's news story, published by CNN, that relates primarily to Vergelegen Wine Estate news.

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predatory wasps

CNN

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A South African vineyard is dropping predatory wasps from drones to keep its grapes free from bugs | CNN

Summary

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81% Informative

South Africa's Vergelegen Wine Estate uses drones to drop predatory wasps that control pests without the use of insecticides.

Each flight covers 20 hectares and 500 wasps are released per hector, before the drone lands so the team can insert a fresh battery and insect cartridge.

The target of the tiny, 3 -milimeter-long Anagyrus is the troublesome mealybug which can spread the debilitating vine disease known as leafroll virus.

A healthy vineyard could remain productive for well over 20 years , but if a vine is infected by leafroll Type-3 virus, the plant will last half that time and bear little to no yield in its final years .

Vergelegen has a program of different measures to control the virus and says its records showed less than 0.05% of leafroll virus infestation.

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