VIRTUAL plants crawling with simulated bugs are the latest weapon for
researchers waging war on crop pests.
Studying the shape of these virtual plants could help cut the use of
pesticides while keeping pests at bay, says David Skirvin of Horticulture
Research International in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. Skirvin and his team are
studying the way pests and their natural predators move through a crop. They
hope to find the most effective predators to act as biological controls.
The researchers are focusing on the shape of the “canopy” formed by leaves of
a field full of plants, such as chrysanthemums. “A more…
