Czech scientists develop probe to help fight bark beetle infestation
After years of problems fighting bark beetle infestation, scientists from the University of South Bohemia and the Biological Centre of the Academy of Sciences in České Budějovice have come up with a major breakthrough. They have developed a probe that detects infested trees accurately and at an early stage.
Protecting Czechia’s deep pine forests from bark beetle has not been easy and there have been a number of calamities in recent decades. Although now the situation is under control –the proffered solution by scientists –ie. to gradually switch to mixed forests when replanting - will take years. In the meantime, foresters are using drones to detect ailing trees. But the effectiveness of drones is limited. Petr Doležal is an entomologist at the Biological Centre of the Academy of Sciences.
"Drones can detect trees that are in poor health, but they don't show us whether that condition is caused by drought, fungi, bark beetle infestation or some other reason."
Some time ago foresters asked scientists at the University of South Bohemia to come up with a device that would better serve their needs. The result is a probe that is small, light and easy to use on a daily basis. Milan Novák, a computer scientist at the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia, demonstrates it in action.
“Now I'm running the camera along the bottom of the tree. The device is mounted on a telescopic pole so that it can scan the tree at different heights. The user immediately sees the camera images on his mobile phone. The app even allows different views, so the forester can see the extent of the damage done".
When a drone detects a tree infested with bark beetle, the infestation is usually at a stage when it has affected surrounding trees. The new camera device detects infested trees much earlier enabling foresters to take corrective action. The amount of trees that will need to be logged will be lower and the overall damage to the given site will be reduced.
Petr Doležal says the scope of this probe is much broader than what it was primarily designed for.
"Primarily we developed it to help in the fight against bark beetle infestation in spruce forests, but now that the calamity is over, it has proved to be of even greater use to arborists in city parks. It not only helps to detect insect pests, but also, for example, fungal pathogens and can even be used to monitor the safety of trees in parks where there is a danger of falling branches."
The probe has already been tested in practice by foresters in the Prachatice region.
"We started the first tests at a time when the bark beetle calamity was in full swing. We were able to save about fifty trees in the space of an hour in an area that was marked for complete clearing."
Scientists are already working on an improved version of the probe, which should be able to identify infested trees even better with the help of artificial intelligence.
