Bug harvest turns pest into a profit
Bug harvest turns pest into a profit
HARVESTING bugs from field-scale crops could become a lucrative sideline, says Swedish farmer and inventor Lars Forsen.
Important chemicals contained within the bodies of some crop pests could be extracted for medical and even fungicidal uses, says Mr Forsen, who farms 120ha (300 acres) at Glashammer, 100 miles west of Stockholm,
According to John Deere house magazine The Furrow, Mr Forsen first hit on the idea of a bug harvester when organic oilseed rape suppliers found it tough to control insects without pesticides.
Live harvest
The machine he developed, dubbed the Deverminator, is now used to harvest live pollen beetles, which are sent to laboratories where novel molecules can be extracted.
Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences believe some of the chemicals extracted may be active against human disease.
Given the ability of the beetles to survive near high levels of fungal disease, they may also contain antibiotics that could serve as fungicides.
So far nobody has managed to breed pollen beetles in captivity, so Mr Forsens patented invention is needed to replenish supplies.
He already has financial backers and if tests succeed, rape growers could be paid to have pests removed from their crop.
A series of pipes is used to blow air up through the crop, dislodging beetles and sending them towards a collecting pipe that sucks them into a hopper. A twin-speed airflow then directs flower parts and dust in one direction and the beetles in another.
The current model is 4m wide, but weighs only 1t and requires 30hp, so wider, higher capacity machines could be made, says Mr Forsen. *
Lars Forsens "Deverminator" collects pollen beetles from flowering oilseed rape for scientists seeking novel molecules for possible medical uses.