Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.

Sci (2019) 8(7): 95-101

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences

ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 07 (2019)
Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.807.013

Development of Eco-Friendly Solar Photovoltaic Insect

Light Trap for Pest Control

A.M. Gavhande*, S.R. Kalbande and V.P. Khambalkar

Department of Unconventional Energy Sources and Electrical Engineering, Dr. Panjabrao

Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (MS) 444104, India

*Corresponding author

ABSTRACT

A solar photovoltaic insect light trap was developed consisted of 10 Wp SPV

panel, 12 V; 7 Ah lead acid battery, charge controller, dusk to down electrical
Keywords circuit and adjustable stand. As per design calculations the trap was fabricated
in the workshop. The performance of solar photovoltaic insect light trap was
Solar Photovoltaic, taken in the farmer’s cotton crop field Vazegaon, Dist. Akola (Maharashtra),
Insect Light Trap,
Ultra violet-A blue, for finding out the efficiency of the developed solar insect light trap and insect
Efficiency, Benefit trapping during night hours. The average values of ambient temperature, wind
Cost Ratio velocity, panel temperature, solar intensity, panel output, panel efficiency,
Article Info panel voltage, panel current, exergy efficiency of panel and battery voltage in
different colour light trap viz., blue, yellow and UV-A blue were recorded. The
Accepted:
04 June 2019
total number of insects caught in blue, yellow and UV-A blue colour light
Available Online: were 6820, 8199 and 19872, respectively during the experimentation. The
10 July 2019 order wise and daily distribution of insects in UV-A blue colour light, the
highest population of Lepidoptera insects was observed. It could be inferred
that the solar insect light trap was technically as well as economically feasible.

Introduction the field crops. There are many preventions

and exterminations for pest problems, such as
The demand for energy is growing day by day physical, biological, chemical and mechanical
in the whole world. The Conventional energy methods are controlling the insect pests. This
sources like coal and petroleum are limited. causes plant residue which is dangerous for
Renewable energy resources will play an consumers and when consuming the fruits and
important role in the future. Agriculture is a vegetables gives us major problems to the
principal occupation in India and more than 70 health (Brimapureeswaran, 2016). The main
% peoples are involved in agriculture. Insect or major phototropic insect pests of cotton that
pests are the major problem to the farmers cause economic loss to this crop are cotton
greatly reducing their income by destroying jassid, cotton whitefly, Armyworm, Cotton

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Mealy Bug, American bollworm, Pink Materials and Methods

bollworm and other (Muhammad, 2017).
Location and site
Light becomes visible to insects around the
yellow part of the spectrum and ends at Akola is located at latitude 20.7° North and
ultraviolet light. (Ashfaq et al., 2005) longitude 77.07° East. It is situated at an
Reducing and controlling the pest population altitude of 287 m to 316 m above mean sea
using light traps is an age old practice. Though level. The experiment was conducted at the
several models and designs of insect light trap field of Vazegaon, Taluka Balapur Dist. Akola
are available but according to (Reddy et al., during March 2018.
2010) solar powered trap with collecting net
developed which has not dependent on any Development of solar photovoltaic insect
other source like wind power, mechanical light trap
power, fuel and electricity. This device
operates automatically, turning on the light This system is mainly consisted of solar panel,
during night hours and turned off before sealed lead acid battery, charge controller,
sunrises. Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of relay circuit, LED light, bulb holding funnel,
Maharashtra are staring at huge losses owing insect collecting chamber, battery box and
to a pest (bollworm) attack on the cotton crop, adjustable three leg support base frame (Bera,
across at least eight lakh hectares of land in 20 2015).
districts.
Energy analysis
More than 96% farmers use BT cotton seeds,
which were supposed to be averse to the attack The performance of a SPV module and battery
of bollworm and thus cotton production was was expressed in terms of their current,
reduced drastically. The farmers are using voltage and power output characteristic which
costly pesticides but the bollworm was found is a function of solar radiation and module
resistant to the chemicals available in the temperature, photovoltaic and exergy
market. efficiency.

Hence the integrated pest management Evaluation of solar insect light trap using
techniques for pest control use of pheromone different colour LED lights
trap, yellow sticky trap, electrically operated
light trap etc. was suggested. One of the The experiment was conducted by using solar
limitations of electrically operated light trap photovoltaic operated light trap with three
use on the farmer’s field in the unavailability colored LED having 5 Watt power rating bulb
of electricity/grid on each and every field. In viz., blue, yellow, and UV-A blue. All three
Indian villages, availability of electricity is a light traps were installed at 2 feet above the
major constrain and almost absent in remote crop height and 30 meter apart from each
villages (Bhamre et al., 2005) along with other to let the insect to orient toward their
higher cost of electricity or electrically based most favorite colour.
light traps.
Light traps were operated from 19.00 hrs to
Keeping these points in view, developed eco- 22.00 hrs and 4.00 hrs to 6.00 hrs daily
friendly solar operated insect light trap for numbers of insects caught were recorded and
control pest population. the insects were separated order wise.

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Order wise comparison of the insects developed by SPV panel increased with
caught in the above mentioned light traps respect to increase in solar radiation. It was
revealed that, the power generated by selected
The insects collected by the above mentioned solar panel was suitable for solar photovoltaic
light traps were sorted out order wise and insect light trap.
tabulated to know the effect of light on the
attraction of insect. The typical V-I characteristic’s curve of solar
panel is shown in Figure 5. It was revealed
Economic feasibility of solar photovoltaic that, the selected panel is suitable in terms of
insect light trap current, voltage and power supply to the solar
photovoltaic insect light trap.
The economic feasibility of solar insect trap
was calculated by using discount rate method. The variation of solar intensity, ambient
temperature and panel temperature developed
Following different economic indicators were with respect to time in solar panel is shown in
used for economic analysis of solar system Figure 6.
under this study (El-Nashar, 2000):
Figure 7 gives the variation in panel efficiency,
Net present worth (NPW) exergy efficiency and solar intensity with
Benefit cost ratio (B/C ratio) respect to time (Fig. 1–3; Table 1).
Payback period
Evaluations of light trap using different
Results and Discussion colour LED light for trapping phototrophic
insects
Results obtained during experimentation are
discussed in following subsection. Table 2 represents the percentage of the total
number of insects caught in various coloured
Performance evaluation of solar insect light light traps. According to the percentage of
trap insects collected, the lowest number of insects
were attracted towards blue colour light i.e.
The comparative performance of solar 19.54%. This finding is in accordance with
photovoltaic insect light trap of the three Ashfaq et al., 2005 and Pate and Curtis (2011)
colors LED light viz., blue, yellow and ultra who also found that the lowest numbers of
violet-A blue were evaluated and the results insects were trapped in blue colored light
obtained are discussed. among the various coloured lights tested. Ultra
violet light attracted the highest number of
Performance of solar photovoltaic system 56.95% insects.

The variation in solar intensity and Yellow light was rated second in attracting the
corresponding power, current, voltage, insects (23.49%). Percentage of insects
ambient temperature, panel temperature, panel attracted towards different coloured light was
efficiency and exergy efficiency with time was computed separately and tabulated in Table 3
recorded for the consecutive days in March and shown in Figure 8.
when solar insect light trap was kept in cotton
field (Bhubneswari et al., 2011). From the Use of solar insect light trap for collecting
above results Figure 4 shows that the power harmful insect is one of the tool in IPM.

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Table.1 Details components of solar photovoltaic insect light trap

S. N. Components Details Specification

1 Photovoltaic panel Multi crystalline Silicon Solar cells used in 10 Wp
the photovoltaic panel for the solar insect
light trap to generate sufficient voltage to
charge the battery with exposure to
sunlight
2 Sealed lead acid battery Battery is a source of stored electrical 12 V; 7 Ah
energy or it is called as storage cell battery,
means it can store electrical energy and
give whenever requires.
3 Charge controller A charge control unit prevents the reverse 10 A
flow of current from battery to panel and
also protects battery from overcharging
4 Relay circuit relay is used to turn on by sunset and turn 12 V, 10 A
off after sunrise and it is a continuous
operation
5 LED light A 5-watt blue and yellow L.E.D. strip bulb 5W
having 3 bulbs on each strip and total of 30
bulbs were used. One 5-watt ultra violet
light having 16 number bulbs on each line
and total 48 numbers of bulbs were joined
to make a single bulb. Hence to attract the
insect UV-A blue L.E.D. bulb, blue L.E.D.
bulb and yellow L.E.D. bulb were used
6 ON/OFF switch It used to ON or OFF the complete system
7 Bulb holding funnel It was hanged over the stand with the help Upper dia.: 30 cm
of iron angle and holds the bulb assembly Lower dia.: 5 cm
8 Insect collecting chamber It acts as a collection unit for insect which Diameter: 38 cm
was hanged to the bulb holding funnel
9 Battery box It holds the battery, solar charge 22 cm × 18 cm
controller, relay, ON/OFF switch, power
outlets and input in the same box.
10 Adjustable three leg It was provided with adjustable screw to Length: 153 cm
support based frame maintain the height of bulb according to Height: 98 cm
crop height

Table.2 Percentage of insects attracted in different light trap

S.N. Colour of light Insect population percent (%)

1. Ultra violet 56.95
2. Yellow 23.49
3. Blue 19.54

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Table.3 Percentage of insects attracted in blue light, Yellow light and UV light

S.N. Order Insect population percent (%)

Blue light Yellow light Ultraviolet light
1. Hemiptera 50.52 50.28 51.92
2. Lepidoptera 44.36 44.77 41.00
3. Diptera 4.85 4.72 6.96
4. Coleoptera 0.24 0.21 0.10

Table.4 Parameters used to analyses the economic feasibility of solar insect light trap

S. N. Costs Two SPV light trap One Electrical light trap

1. Capital cost 6000 3800
2. Maintenance Cost 600 600
3. Electricity charge Nil 2856

Fig.2 Solar insect light Fig.3 Field performance of SPV

Fig.1 Circuit arrangement trap insect light trap

Fig.4 Variation in solar intensity and power Fig.5 Variation in current and voltage of solar
output of solar panel with time panel with time

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Fig.6 Variation in ambient temperature, panel Fig.7 Variation in panel efficiency, exergy
temperature and solar intensity with time efficiency and solar intensity with time

Fig.8 Insects attracted in different coloured light trap

Among all three light traps, the performance The net present value for the 12 year of cash
of UV-A blue light insect trap was found flow analysis was found to be Rs.9371.69.
better in terms of insect collected. Most of the The benefit cost ratio of the financial system
harmful insects were attracted towards UV-A has been worked out for the cost and benefit
blue light and hence it is calculated that the involved over the period. The benefit cost
use of UV-A blue light in solar insect trap is ratio of the solar photovoltaic insect light trap
beneficial in integrated pest management was observed to be 1.93 with payback period
practices (Bhamre et al., 2005). of 2 year 1 month.

Economic feasibility of solar photovoltaic The maximum efficiency of 10 Wp solar

insect light trap panel was found to be 14.25 %. The
maximum working hours of SPV light trap
The economic feasibility of the solar was 10-13 hours. The battery was full
photovoltaic insect light trap was evaluated charged in 6 hour with the help of SPV panel.
using discount cash flow (DCF) method The more insects were attracted by ultra violet
(Table 4). The economic parameters are coloured light trap rather than blue and yellow
present worth of cost, present worth of colored light trap. The area of coverage of
benefit, net present value and payback period UV-A blue light trap was found 2.5 acre per
was determined. two traps.

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The solar insect light trap was found eco- Brimapureeswaran R., Nivas G., Meenatchi
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Emerging Technology and Innovative
The economic analysis suggested that the Engineering. 2(3): 37-41.
solar photovoltaic insect light trap was El-Nashar, Ali M., 2000. Economics of small
economically viable and could be used for solar-assisted multiple-effect stack
controlling the insect and pest population in distillation plants. Desalination 130,
IPM technique. 201–215.
Muhammad S. (2017). Biological Parameters
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How to cite this article:

Gavhande, A.M., S.R. Kalbande and Khambalkar, V. P. 2019. Development of Eco-Friendly

Solar Photovoltaic Insect Light Trap for Pest Control. Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 8(07): 95-
101. doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.807.013

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