Back to the Forest

We headed back to Scotland for the latest stage of our Forest Pod trial with Forestry and Land Scotland.

Forest Pod development

Details of the first part of our Forest Pod trial were announced in October 2020. Neil and Aidan returned to the installation sites to collect the Pods and return them to Spotta HQ. They have been assessing the trial data to further enhance Forest Pod before the next trial stage begins.

“The data so far has been positive, we’re seeing better sensitivity than the existing, manual methods for monitoring Pine Weevil with the added advantage of continuous monitoring,” says our CTO, Neil D’Souza-Mathew. “We’ve identified some areas we can improve - such as small design tweaks which will reduce the impact of weather and mud on the image output - and are getting more units ready as we increase the trial’s reach from 50 to 150 units in Stage Three.”

Weevil detection

The data from Stage Two of the trial aligns with industry expectations: most of the Pine Weevils (Hylobius abietis) were detected at night, between the hours of 9pm and 7am. Their distribution around the site was varied, with movement around the site during the trial.

In addition to the hardware, the next stage of the trial will further develop the web interface and reporting system, providing a deeper summary of the pests’ activity.

Progression to product launch in 2021

“Detecting the Pine Weevils in line with expectations around their movement and activity time-frames is further proof of the product’s effectiveness,” adds Neil. “We’ll continue to iterate the Forest Pod to ensure it meets our quality benchmarks and look forward to bringing it to market in 2021.”

To register your interest in Forest Pod, contact us.