Remote monitoring system for detecting termites
AssigneeUniversity of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorNan-Yao Su
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The subject invention pertains to materials and methods useful for monitoring and management of certain pests well as other biotic and abiotic factors. The invention is particularly well suited for the control of social insect pests, and particularly, termites. The invention concerns methods and apparatuses for monitoring pest activity and presenting a toxicant. The invention is useful as part of an Integrated Pest Management Program and can significantly enhance the efficacy, efficiency and convenience of the management program.
Claims20
A system to monitor for termites in a plurality of zones, comprising:
- at least one termite sensor adapted for placement in each of said zones, each of said termite sensors including at least one monitoring block made of termite edible material and an electrical conductor positioned adjacent to or embedded in the at least one monitoring block, the electrical conductor being made of a material that is breakable by termite feeding, the electrical conductor forming a continuous electrical bridging circuit such that when termite feeding breaks the electrical conductor, the continuous electrical bridging circuit is broken;
- a data collection unit communicating with said at least one termite sensor in each zone independently of termite sensors in other zones, said data collection unit being capable of registering the presence of termites at any of said zones independently of other zones;
- and
- a host processor for communicating with said data collection unit from a remote location to retrieve data relating to the presence of termites.
A method to monitor for termites in a plurality of zones, said method comprising the steps of:
- placing at least one termite sensor in each of said zones, each of said termite sensors including at least one monitoring block made of termite edible material, and an electrical conductor positioned adjacent to or embedded in the at least one monitoring block, the electrical conductor being made of a material that is breakable by termite feeding, the electrical conductor forming a continuous electrical bridging circuit such that when termite feeding breaks the electrical conductor, the continuous electrical bridging circuit is broken;
- establishing communication with said at least one termite sensor in each zone using a data collection unit configured to register the presence of termites at any of said zones independently of other zones;
- and
- communicating from a remote location through a host processor with said data collection unit to retrieve data relating to the presence of termites.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.