Development of an index to estimate potential risk of slug damage

Abstract

Terrestrial slugs are important pests for many agricultural and horticultural crops. Current control strategies are mostly based on preventive approaches and their success is strongly influenced by timing of application and knowledge of the pests’ behaviour. This paper presents an approach to estimate spatial and temporal activity of slugs in the field. For this, an index is developed considering different factors that influence the activity of slugs. The index is then used to generate a map, where areas of the field with higher potential risk of slug damage are identified. This map can be used for smart agriculture applications such as the control of these pests through an autonomously operating field robot.