How listening to the sounds of insects can help detect agricultural pests

On a muggy June morning, Emily Bick winds through a field of knee-high corn, just north of Madison, Wisconsin. It feels like that quiet, anticipation-filled moment before a concert: Tech people are setting up microphones, untangling wires.

She’s here for a show.

The star of this particular show is the microphone itself. Research assistants are attaching it to the corn stalks, an innovation that Bick dubbed the Insect Eavesdropper.

Read more here: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/30/1198910681/agriculture-insects-sound-crops-pests