How Listening to the Sounds of Insects Can Help Detect Agricultural Pests

Sep 02, 2024

By Lina Tran and Jessica Yung

On a muggy June morning, Emily Bick winds through a field of knee-high corn, just north of Madison, Wisconsin. It feels like that quiet, anticipation-filled moment before a concert: Tech people are setting up microphones, untangling wires.

She's here for a show.

The star of this particular show is the microphone itself. Research assistants are attaching it to the corn stalks, an innovation that Bick dubbed the Insect Eavesdropper.

Bick, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researches ways to better detect the agricultural pests that drive serious economic losses worldwide. She says improving these methods could result in using pesticides more strategically — less often, at just the right time.

Click here to see more...
Subscribe to our Newsletters

Trending Video