College entrepreneurs develop solution to control Japanese beetles
News
College entrepreneurs develop solution to control Japanese beetles
Two college students have developed a solution to help farmers control a common crop pest.
Aditya Prabhu says he and fellow University of Minnesota student James Duquette created Alure LLC because they recognized Japanese beetles are a problem throughout the Midwest.
“They actually feed on 300 different species of plants (that) includes a lot of the traditional agricultural plants that growers are tending to during the summer, but also gardeners too.”
He tells Brownfield most control methods are expensive and toxic, so Alure is taking a perimeter-based approach.
“We’ve sourced and utilized these safe insecticide-infused netting which we sort of place at regular intervals throughout the perimeter of a property. And we’ve done some exciting preliminary testing too in early February where we’ve found that these enclosures can attract and kill Japanese beetles within just two minutes of exposure.”
Prabhu says there will be pilot projects for the bait and kill product this summer.
Alure LLC was a finalist in the Schultz Entrepreneurship Challenge, a Shark Tank-like national competition that took place last month.
