The diamondback moth, or cabbage moth, Plutella xylostella is an important pest in many countries of the world. It seems to be present in all places where cruciferous plants are.
In Europe, its presence is very important and many countries are trying to improve its monitoring to better control it. This is why several partners of the H2020 SmartProtect project have contacted Cap 2020 to test the CapTrap Vision trap on this pest. Within the framework of this project, institutitions from different countries are testing numerous solutions allowing to improve the protection of crops and list them in a platform accessible here.
CapTrap Vision trap installed in a cabbage field in Estonia (photo credit: Priit Põldma, 2022)
For the monitoring of Plutella, two first traps were installed in Belgium in 2021 but a little late, so no captures were made. In 2022, traps were installed in several countries: England, Belgium, Estonia and Latvia, in order to monitor the pest. The deployments in these countries were done without any problem, and the traps communicated directly once powered on site.
A number of diamondback moths were trapped, and the first version of the Cap 2020 recognition algorithm was able to count about 60-70% of the pests that arrived on the traps. This first version was developed based on bibliographic data and experience in monitoring other crop pests. Reaching 60 to 70% in the first version of the algorithm is therefore proof that with more data we will obtain a powerful algorithm with a reliability exceeding 95% as for the other pests monitored with CapTrap Vision traps.
Example of diamondback moths recognized in one of the CapTrap Vision traps installed in 2022
The information collected this year will allow us to improve our diamondback moth recognition algorithm and we should have a fully operational algorithm for this pest by 2023.