UVC Light Used to Replace Pesticides on Farms

Maybe it will help replenish the ozone layer...

Obviously why there are no insects at the north pole...

..."Ultraviolet light does kill insects as well, and it's commonly used in quarantine labs to keep potentially dangerous insects from escaping into the environment. It's also been investigated as a way to kill stored product pests without resorting to pesticides. ... Scorpions glow under UV light."...Feb 23, 2015

Seems that blue light is also effective against insects....

https://askentomologists.com/2015/02/23/does-uv-light-kill-insects-what-about-other-types-of-light/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4260232/

I wonder if you could cover the fields for 48 hrs once a month with a plastic that would block all wavelengths of light except the blue...a translucent blue sheet...A traveling block could rotate around the field...

https://spark.iop.org/colour-separation-light-filters#gref

I wonder if you could cover the fields for 48 hrs once a month with a plastic that would block all wavelengths of light except the blue..

The UV light is there whether you block the other wavelengths or not . I can't see that the other wavelengths would subtract from the action of the UV.

Well I was talking about the research on visible blue light cited in the last link...and as pictured in the graph....

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4260232/

Evidently blue light is toxic to insects, as well as UV....I was thinking of a simpler cheaper approach....There seems to be different wavelengths of blue light that are more toxic depending on the type of insect, even eggs and larvae it seems...So if you know what type of insects you are targeting you could maybe fine tune the blue light wavelength for that particular insect...possibly equivalent to different shades of blue...Rather than lighting up the whole field with UV you could just use a blue plastic cover and get the same results....

The 467nm wavelength seems particularly toxic to fruit fly pupae...

Maybe a combination of both, blue light and UV....If we could make solar collectors to mimic the blue plastic, translucent flexible PV panels, they could not only provide the blue light during sunny days, but also power the UV lights ...

https://www.edenpark.com/index.html

http://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-researchers-develop-graphene-based-transparent-flexible-solar-cells-0728

The blue plastic doesn't increase the amount of blue light, it just removes the other wavelengths. So my question is: "Do the wavelengths that were filtered out negate the lethal effect of the blue light which is passed by the blue plastic?"

I don't have enough research material to make a conclusion here....It seems to me though that the lethality of the blue light hinges on the absence of other light and is primarily dependent on oxidative stress occurring which seems more common at certain stages of insect development life cycles...and certain insects are more effected by certain wavelengths possibly even at varying wavelengths at different stages of development...It does seem to me the blue light would be more effective at night, but that remains a question....One thing though is that blue light in the visible spectrum can kill insects, that has been proven....

Wow! This is really exciting! getting rid of any pesticide is a very good thing!

Agreed!!

It seems like every day we are learning more ways to use the sun. It must be the real center of life.

Indeed - it's quite a revelation for the fossil fuel pedants.

These ideas sound rather Smurfy.

Why do blueberries get dumped with insecticide?

Should toilets, remotes, phones and hospital's be blue?

How to make blue paint?

Any thoughts (or available information) on the persistence of the UV treatment? Also, it didn't say if this is far UV-C.

The Roomba aspect is kind of neat as it can work day or night (unsupervised) as long as the battery is charged.

Just sayin',

TBC

The far uvc light is new to this field and they don't specify the wavelength used other than UVC, but on previous research the light was applied for 60 seconds twice a week at night to kill fungus, mold and mildew...There has been indications that UVC is effective against mites and other insects, but the wavelengths and duration are still to be determined...It's clear we need a lot more research in this field, and there should be many more studies launched to test all these variables...also the protection of picked fruit while being stored and shipped to market is another area needing research and development...

https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/berries/how-uv-c-irradiation-can-help-save-strawberries/

...."Short-wavelength visible light (blue light: 400-500 nm) has lethal effects on various insects, such as fruit flies, mosquitoes, and flour beetles. However, the most toxic wavelengths of blue light might differ across developmental stages.

Here, we investigate how the toxicity of blue light changes with the developmental stages of an insect by irradiating Drosophila melanogaster with different wavelengths of blue light.

Specifically, the lethal effect on eggs increased at shorter light wavelengths (i.e., toward 405 nm). In contrast, wavelengths from 405 to 466 nm had similar lethal effects on larvae.

A wavelength of 466 nm had the strongest lethal effect on pupae; however, mortality declined as pupae grew. A wavelength of 417 nm was the most harmful to adults at low photon flux density, while 466 nm was the most harmful to adults at high photon flux density.

These findings suggest that, as the morphology of D. melanogaster changes with growth, the most harmful wavelength also changes.

In addition, our results indicated that reactive oxygen species influence the lethal effect of blue light. Our findings show that blue light irradiation could be used as an effective pest control method by adjusting the wavelength to target specific developmental stages."...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29920536