AU2010101317A4 - Locust harvester - Google Patents

Description

1 Description The harvester is an environmentally friendly method of catching and containing swarming locusts or other flying insects. This device enables the economic and efficient capturing of insects in quantities sufficient to be dried and used as a stockfeed or fertilizer ingredient. The device provides an alternative to the use of chemical or biological agents to control swarming insects and turn a pest into a useful and potentially valuable resource. The harvester comprises three main components, the catcher the separator and the collector which in varying configurations and multiples can be mounted on, or trailed behind a moving vehicle or placed in a windy location. The catcher consists of a horizontally oriented funnel or truncated cone made from flexible material which when placed in an airstream produced by a moving vehicle or the wind pushes the insects towards the narrow end of the funnel thus concentrating the insect swarm density and directing them into the separator. the separator consists of a mesh screen cage which vents the air and a deflector which directs the insects into the collector.The collector can be a removable container or an auger to bin assembly. It should be noted that most devices of this nature use suction from a vacuum device to draw the insects into the separaror whereas this harvester uses air pressure to blow the insects into the separator. The harvester is coloured green to minimise the insects' obstacle avoidance reaction.