Some Are Born Great Counters, Some Achieve Great Counting, And Some Use AI

Light Traps (ILTs) have been extensively used in food manufacturing sites for monitoring insect activity through fly catch analysis. This is a necessary but laborious task that requires a highly skilled technician to analyse the insect catch. A digital counting system has been developed to conduct the fly catch analysis without requiring the technician to be on-site and allowing analysis at any time. To be implemented by the pest management industry, the solution needs to be as accurate as human counts and improves the working conditions of a technician or company. When assessing if a digital count can be as accurate as humans, the digital system was able to perform as well when counting during daylight settings. There is also a range of methods technicians will use to count the insects, varying in accuracy and precision with some technicians choosing the most time-efficient method. When counting the same glue board, total insects caught had a wide variability depending on the method used. This highlights that data generated from fly catch analysis in the field will vary significantly depending on the technician.