AMU faculty members patent device to capture whiteflies

Aligarh : Experts in garden cultivation and management will now have a solution to curb the menace of whiteflies sucking the sap from the underside of leaves and their excretion hindering the photosynthesis process leading to stunted growth in plants—as Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) faculty members from the Department of Plant Protection, Dr Syed Kamran Ahmad and Prof Parvez Qamar Rizvi have jointly invented a device for automatic detection, capturing and monitoring of whiteflies.

They have patented their creation as ‘A Device to Capture and Count the whitefly Adults’ at The Patent Office, Government of India. It was under consideration for a patent since 2014.

“The device is capable of counting and measuring the whitefly adults on per plant basis. The trap when inverted over the plant, forces all the resting whiteflies to orient towards the light—leading to their clusters becoming visible for the counting. The whiteflies are later captured by using aspirator through the access window of the device”, said the inventors.