Development of a portable electronic nose for detection of pests and plant damage

Agricultural pests are responsible for millions of dollars of crop losses and control costs every year. To reduce these losses and minimize control costs, new methods to detect pests and/or pest damage must be investigated in order to optimize control measures. One such method evaluated in this study was to detect the chemicals released by pests or pest-damaged products. A portable device was developed to draw volatiles from pests or pest-damaged products over carbon black-polymer composite sensors and measure the change in resistance for each sensor. The device successfully sampled pest and plant volatiles and these volatiles were detected using carbon black-polymer composite sensors. These results indicated an electronic nose is a feasible approach to detect pests and/or pest damage. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.