Sentinel 6 commenced monitoring in the intensive vegetable cropping region of Virginia at Thorndon Park Produce on the 25th of September.

iMapPESTS deployed Sentinel 6 to project partner Sugar Research Australia’s Meringa site near Cairns in Far North Queensland to test out how it would operate under the adverse environmental conditions growers & primary producers experience during the wet season.

The unit features one six-metre insect trap, a two-metre insect suction trap and two spore suction traps, as well as an onboard weather station. Priority pests and pathogens for sugar, grains, and horticulture were targeted for identification at this site.

Insect pests targeted

Sugarcane planthopper (Perkinsiella saccharicida)

Green peach aphid (Myzus persicae)

Green mirid (Creontiades dilutus)

Western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis)

Melon cotton aphid (Aphis gossypii)

Green vegetable bug (Nezara viridula)

Onion thrips (Thrips tabaci)

Fungal pathogens targeted

Sugarcane smut (Sporisorium scitamineum)

Botrytis grey mould (Botryitis cinerea)

Sclerotinia white rot (Sclerotinia minor &/ S. sclerotiorum)