Orchard Pests Killed by Radio

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 23, 19 December 1930, Page 3

Orchard Pests Killed by Radio

QRCHARDISTS will be interested in a recent application of radio as an exterminator of insect pests in the orchard. The system has proved both efficient and practicable, and hours have been allocated by the American broadcasting authorities for "spray broadcasting" in orchards. : A series of aerial and earth wires is used, attached to a generator which furnishes 110,000 volt: of high frequency electricity. The current trayels from the aerial, which is stretched above each tree, through the trunk to the earth wires below, and back to the generating machine, thus completing the circuit. Fruit growers and State inspectors who have tested the system thoroughly report that the current kills insect eggs, scale, and other fruit parasites by "exploding" the cells and sterilising them. Insects flying in the path of the current are also killed. The inventor of the system is the late Dr. B. N. Burglund, who is credited with extensive researches in radio and high frequency electricity.