A tractor-mounted vacuum successfully removed many crop-damaging insects in field tests, offering farmers a promising, pesticide-free option for pest management. Researchers in Slovenia who developed the system are now refining it to better target pests while avoiding beneficial insects. (Image originally published supplementary to Batistič et al. 2026, Journal of Economic Entomology)

By Ed Riccuiti

Ed Ricciuti

Researchers at Slovenia’s University of Ljubljana are literally and figuratively working the bugs out of a tractor-mounted vacuum system they believe can be an important nonchemical addition to integrated pest management (IPM) of field crops. Some tinkering is needed, however, before it can be fully operational, according to their study published last month in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

The electrically driven mobile system they developed and tested for pest removal under field conditions over three years dislodges insects from vegetation with a curtain of air blown obliquely upward from two nozzles. A front-mounted vacuum intake then sucks them up for collection. The tractor on which the system is mounted straddles the rows of crops, wheels on either side.

The system had instant impact, removing a wide variety of true bugs (Heteroptra) from low-growing crops such as buckwheat, alfalfa, and soybean. So far, however, it is not practical for tall crops, such as sunflower and sorghum. Other issues to be resolved include that the system does not discriminate between pest and beneficial species and that the optimal air flow remains to be determined for effectively knocking pests off their perches.

Researcher Luka Batistič, a Ph.D. student at the University of Ljubljana, says he and his colleagues are trying to work the kinks out of the system so it can become a complementary IPM tactic that leaves no chemical residues and does not promote insect resistance to pesticides. It could be a major boon for farmers faced with regulatory pressure on pesticides at a time when warming temperatures are making conditions more favorable for insect pests. It does not eradicate pests but, unlike chemicals, can be used repeatedly to suppress their numbers.

A tractor-mounted vacuum successfully removed many crop-damaging insects in field tests, offering farmers a promising, pesticide-free option for pest management. Researchers in Slovenia who developed the system are now refining it to better target pests while avoiding beneficial insects. The system consists of a tractor (1), a front-mounted suction device (2), an electric generator driven by the rear power take-off (3), and a frequency inverter supplying the fan motor (4). (Image originally published in Batistič et al. 2026, Journal of Economic Entomology)

“Our idea was to work with a relatively simple and affordable prototype, prioritizing functionality rather than immediately incorporating expensive high-tech components, and to determine whether pneumatic removal could have a place among mechanical IPM options under European field conditions,” he says, “Based on what we learned during these trials, we now want to continue improving the system, and we already have several ideas for possible modifications and future development.”

Batistič says one future direction he’s interested in would be to equip the system with machine vision or pest-recognition technology that would activate the vacuum only when a target pest is detected. That could solve what is perhaps the system’s key flaw—removing the good along with the bad species.

Machine vision combined with what Batistič calls “more precisely directed airflow” from small, focused nozzles might improve collection of relatively large-bodied pests such as stink bugs (Pentatomidae) and the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata). “There is certainly room for further engineering development,” he says.

The rate of air flow needed to remove insects depends on a complex interaction between the insect, the plant it infests, and the system itself. Air flow must be fine-tuned to adjust for factors such as the structure and height of plants, seasonality, and the stage of the insect and strength of its foothold. Less mobile than adults, for example, nymphs are most vulnerable to vacuuming.

A tractor-mounted vacuum successfully removed many crop-damaging insects in field tests, offering farmers a promising, pesticide-free option for pest management. Researchers in Slovenia who developed the system are now refining it to better target pests while avoiding beneficial insects. (Photo courtesy of Luka Batistič)

Areas within crops where target insects congregate and where the airflow should be aimed can also be impacted by seasonal development and plant growth stages. Stinkbugs (Pentatomidae), leaf-footed bugs (Coreidae) and plant bugs (Miridae) typically feed and congregate on actively growing vegetative tissues, including buds and developing leaves, as well as on reproductive structures such as flowers, pods, seeds, and fruits.

Vacuuming insects out of crops is not a new concept. It has been widely used in the United States on low-growing crops such as strawberries and potatoes but not on taller field crops. The system could be modified for tall crops, according to Batistič, by mounting the suction unit on the side of the adjustable arm. It would pass higher in the plant canopy while the tractor would move alongside the crop, rather than over it.

Vacuuming has received little attention in Europe, says Batistič, though why is difficult to answer. “The lack of European field research was one of the reasons we became interested in exploring the concept under our conditions,” he says.

Their study, the researchers believe, is the first to evaluate how a vacuum system performs across seasons and years, multiple and types of crops, and heteropteran distribution, together with trials of airflow regulation and tractor speed. “It represents one of the first, if not the first, multi-year field evaluation of such a system in European agroecosystems,” says Batistič.

Ed Ricciuti is a journalist, author, and naturalist who has been writing for more than a half century. His most recent book is called Bears in the Backyard: Big Animals, Sprawling Suburbs, and the New Urban Jungle (Countryman Press, June 2014). His assignments have taken him around the world. He specializes in nature, science, conservation issues, and law enforcement. A former curator at the New York Zoological Society, and now at the Wildlife Conservation Society, he may be the only man ever bitten by a coatimundi on Manhattan’s 57th Street.