Page 15 - Free State Winter 2022 - Website Version

Undergraduate students place bagworm cages on 'Green giant' arborvitae in the nursery for our trial of DJI spray drone being readied for takeoff for the bagworm trial in a commercial nursery.
low-risk pesticides applied using a drone.
before bagworms and a treated branch was encased of Conserve, and Confirm. Slightly better control was
inside the bag. The other end of the bag was cable tied obtained with this same application method for Dipel and
around the treated branch. The confined bagworms fed Mainspring.
on the treated branches for 13 days before efficacy data When we increased the number of passes the drone
were collected.
made on a treatment row to 3 passes with the spray
Branches with netted cable tied bags were cut off treated drone, the efficacy of Confirm and Conserve significantly
trees and taken back to our research lab for post counts. increased, likely due to better coverage. We did not see a
Netted bags were open cutting off the cable-ties and significant increase in efficacy with Dipel and Mainspring
bagworms were placed in the middle of a circle drawn on when comparing two spray passes to three spray passes
a paper plate. Bagworms were given ten minutes to crawl with the drone.
beyond the line of the circle. Those bagworms crawling All of the treatment gave significantly better control than
outside the circle were considered alive and those that did the water treated plants. (See chart on page 16)
not were considered dead.
Where are we Headed from Here?
Discussion:
In 2022 we will continue to expand the number of low
Having the drone go down the row and back again for risk pesticides we trial in nurseries. In part one, we
double coverage gave fairly good control for treatments
(continued on next page)
Table 1.0. List of the insecticides applied, the rate used, and number of passes they were applied using a drone sprayer to
Arborvitae var. ‘Green Giant’.
Product Ai Rate Number of Flying Passes
Mainspring Cyantraniliprole 4.0 oz./100 gallons Two
Mainspring Cyantraniliprole 4.0 oz./100 gallons Three
Dipel Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki 2 lb./100 gal Two
Dipel Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki 2 lb./100 gal Three
Conserve Spinosad 6 fl. Oz./100 gal Two
Conserve Spinosad 6 fl. Oz./100 gal Three
Confirm Tebufenozide 6 oz/100 gal Two
Confirm Tebufenozide 6 oz/100 gal Three
Untreated control Water Two

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