Design and testing of a low cost micro-volume sprayer for bait spraying

The European directives 2009/128/EC, devoted to establish a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides and the 2009/127/EC, related to design, construction and maintenance of machinery for pesticide application, are being changing significantly the pest and weed control. In this context, many studies were carried out in order to develop precision spraying devices and to find alternative at conventional chemical pesticides. On this last regard, one of the rising solutions, is the poisoned sugar-based bait to control the fruit flies. These pests are becoming a great issue for a broad Mediterranean orchard cultivation area, where a lot of damages were documented. Therefore, this study looks the developing and testing of a micro-volume sprayer. An electrical sprayer with an automatic spray controller based on open source Arduino platform, was designed. The prototype was tested in laboratory condition and on cherry growing for two seasons in center Italy to assess the operative reliability. Results showed the efficacy of sprayer and use of bait (Spintor-Fly ®) to the control of the cherry fruit fly.