The Eurecat technology centre has helped to develop a roving prototype for controlling invasive alien species insects as part of a project led by Bionet (Gepork Group) and coordinated by the INNOVACC cluster which is designed to detect their entry via goods or people 24 hours a day to deliver continuous analysis.

The project, called Exoviewer, has since April generated more than a thousand images of captures which have enabled biologists to study the insects detected as part of the initiative which has also featured the involvement of Selección Batallé and external support from Mylva along with the backing of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food.

The starting point for the rollout of the Exoviewer project “is the fact that when a bioinvasion of an alien species is identified, the earlier it is controlled, the greater the chances of eradicating it,” says Roger Vila, the head of Bionet (Gepork Group), given that “once the species is already settled in the new habitat, it is very hard to stop it and efforts need to focus on containing it as much as possible and mitigating its effects.”

To achieve this goal, “the prototype, which is a trailer, automatically captures images of each of the traps to check their status,” adds project leader Santi Pérez from Eurecat’s Product Innovation team, who points out that as part of Exoviewer ‘‘various attractants are also being tested to analyse them and their functionality.”

Innovation for monitoring invasive species insects

The prototype is sited at the Port of Barcelona’s facilities and ​​combines visual attractants, such as coloured panels, light and various patterns, with olfactory ones and specific equipment for capturing mosquitoes and other species. It sends images of the insect captures which makes it possible to identify which day the capture was made to pinpoint its source without needing to conduct regular on-site inspections.

This alien species control unit is to be relocated in the coming months and special attention will be paid to the places where cruise ships and cargo vessels dock.

Alien species are constantly coming in and the circumstances for them to settle are not always ideal. This means that if unsuccessful arrivals are identified, preventive strategies can be put in place to avert their entry or quick response actions can be taken in the event that they do come in and are successful in colonising.

Multi-capture traps in a single device

Exoviewer embeds multi-capture insect traps in a single device to get pictures of the trapping sheets from cameras and send them to a server for identification and classification. The challenge in the prototype’s development has been to include more than one trap for multi-species trapping while also moving it to the most appropriate location for monitoring from the biological standpoint.

Eurecat has delivered all the technological development work for the implementation of the alien species control unit and it has taken nearly a year to design and produce the prototype. Bionet (Gepork Group) is the project leader, Selección Batallé has provided facilities for preliminary testing of the prototype prior to setting up the trailer in the port, and Mylva has developed the various attractants used.

The project has been financed with EAFRD funds earmarked for the implementation of innovative pilot projects by the operational groups of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on agricultural productivity and sustainability (Operation 16.01.01 in the Rural Development Programme of Catalonia (RDP) 2014-2020). The project ends in September 2024, although the companies are keen to continue examining bioinvasion anchored in the project’s results and also to develop a new and even more powerful prototype model.