The USDA is Launching Hordes of Irradiated Moths from Drones

In Popular Science, Mary Beth Griggs reports that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is dropping sterile moths from drones to manage infestations in cotton crops.

Keeping moths away from cotton is typically seen as a good thing. But the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has other ideas. In a pilot program, they’re using drones to drop thousands of lab-grown pink bollworm moths directly onto the cotton fields.

Drones are a cheaper delivery method than the manual throw-moths-out-of-a-small airplane method that has been used in the past, so if the tests continue to go well, you might be seeing more moths flying out of drones in the future…

The USDA’s full video about the moth drop is here:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0tWON1aeKY?&wmode=opaque&modestbranding=1&rel=0&w=640&h=390]

Source: The USDA Is Launching Hordes Of Irradiated Moths From Drones