eradicate LFA using drone
The Problem
Little Fire ant (LFA) is an invasive ant in an increasing number of countries with very important impact on wildlife & human life - for the moment there is no solution on tropical environnement (Hawaii, New Caledonia, French Polynesia) because this ant live in 3 D and with very high densities in tropical countries
Our Proposal
We already almost succed to eradicate LFA in a cliff of 17,3 ha (no LFA at the basis of the cliff 24 months after the last application) using a drone to spread 4 applications of insecticide in parallell transects but we still a little bit short of money for continue our trial on two other colonies and demonstrate this method is working: we have two accessible forested areas to treat & not enough funds. In addition, we would like to find a guy able to calculate flight path as our ingenior is not living anymore in French Polynesia We use the drone to spread 4 times at one month intervals: - S-methopren 5gr/kg - 6.5-7.3kg/ha - Hydramethylnon 6.5gr/kg - 3.5-4 kg/ha - S-methopren (same rate than the first application) - Hydramethylnon (same rate than the second application) We follow an operational plan built with 10 experts of invasive species; ant or Little fire ant experts: including: Steve Cranwell -> Invasive pest management, BirdLife International Fidji ; Ben Hoffman -> Researcher at CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre, Winnellie; Garry Web -> Sumitomo Chemical, Epping; Gary Morton -> Coordinator, National Electric Ant Eradication Program Biosecurity Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries; Casper Vanderwoude -> Researcher at Hawai`i Ant Lab, Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, UH; Matai Depierre -> DIREN New Caledonia: Hervé Jourdan -> IRD de Nouvelle-Calédonie We work with a local drone compagny: matarai https://www.matarai.com
We Assume that...
We assume our method will work in other areas thant cliff (ie forest) because LFA is living in the ground & in trees but we have to demontrate it
We assume local government will trust us after we could finalize the trial
We assume our method is working but we need to work in accessible areas to demontrate it and to test it on other type of forest
Constraints to Overcome
We need to wait one more year before to claim an eradication is successfull & we first work in a cliff, which is not accessible. That why we need to perform our trial in forest located in accessible areas in order to test our methodology & our results faster. We have 80% of our funds but still lack of money for fund personnal; try to inovate with the hopper and we need to find an ingenior as partner for the next (future) challenge, if we want to export this work in a larger dimension.
Current Work
if we get the money, SOP: monitor de application / help Matarai to find /test/improve solution Matarai: prepare the drone material for the next applications/perform the application; find solution with larger hopper The ingenior could help us to valitate/change the fligh path (we have them already but cannot change them)
Current Needs
we have the skills & the determination (if not the Tahiti monarch cannot survive in Tahiti Island), most of the money but we are not sure that we will get enough fund to follow the work done by the drone compagny and improve the solution by decreasing its cost. We also need to find a partner for the next ongoing pathway calculation.