Luciani E., D. Guidi, A. Albieri, R. Veronesi, R. Bellini, P. Marras.
21st European SOVE Conference,
22-26 October 2018 – Palermo, Italy.
Conventional ground larval mosquito control operations have some limitations particularly in wetlands and agricultural areas, due to vegetation and accessibility constraints, which have a major impact on their effectiveness. This is why in some areas of Po river Delta (Municipality of Comacchio, Emilia-Romagna region, Italy), a preliminary test was conducted in September 2017 on the using of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to map flooded areas (Aedes caspius and Ae. detritus breeding sites) and to perform larvicide treatments by Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (B.t.i.). New field tests were conducted in June 2018 by B.t.i. and by B.t.i. + Lysinibacillus sphaericus, against Ae. caspius and Culex pipiens in agricultural areas. The possibility to automate the drone to independently perform larvicidal treatments only where is necessary has been also tested. The targets of 2018 trials were: ability of the larvicidal product to reach the water; larval mortality based on the technical parameters adopted for the drone flight (speed, flight height, dose of the formulation); the efficiency of the drone flight plan system based on the upload of pre-digitized breeding sites by GIS into memory drone and evaluation of productivity expressed in hectares/hour.
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