Drone Herbicide Application

[SwampCat]

Had a slough that has been overcome with a cocktail of aquatic vegetation completely covering water surface. Had a drone applicator come in and spray. Seven acres. Took about an hour after set up.

 

[Native Hunter]

How do they charge and what is a ballpark price?

 

[yoderjac]

Really cool! What a great approach to dealing with wet areas! I don't know how sophisticated that drone is, but some versions let you program a track by GPS. I could see making a test run. Flying low one could get a pretty even application. When we first bought the pine farm, the timber company that owned it previously knew they were going to sell it, so they did not spray the pines when they should have. By the time we got it, it was too thick to do a truck or tractor application. We had to have a helicopter do the spraying and it wasn't cheap. I wonder how much fluid a drone like that can carry.

Again, GREAT IDEA!

 

[Tree Spud]

Great idea!

What Herbicide did you spray? Primarily for cattails?

Any DNR/State approvals for spraying in a wetland?

 

[SwampCat]

The operator first flies the perimeter of the area to be sprayed. The software then automatically plots the flight path back and forth across the area. The drone flies itself, stops when it gets to the perimeter, moves over and starts back across. Covers about 25 ft with a 12 ft boom. It holds a four gallon removeable herbicide tank with sensor so it know when to return for tank replacement. The four gallon tank sprays approx an acre. The battery lasts about six minutes under load. The 4 gallon tank empties in about four minutes. The operator has a truck and enclosed trailer. The truck has the bulk chemical tank and a large generator. The generator recharges the batteries. The trailer contains fifteen batteries and fifteen four gal herbicide tanks. All the batteries sit in a rack that is connected to the generator in the back of the truck and recharge while he is driving. He fills about five tanks to start with. When the drone returns when the tank empties, he replaces the battery and herbicide tank with a full one. At the end, the operator assumes manual control and gets all nooks and crannies that were not included in the original mapping. Took a total of two hours including set up and pick up and my 500 questions. Operator said Sprayed a combo of roundup, Arsenal, and triclorpyr.

price will be about $1200 for my 7 acres. Also includes chemical. They have to calculate exact amount of chemical used. Also included two hours to get to my place and two hours back

the primary species were a cladium - sawgrass/rush, and alligator weed - and invasive species. The company I contracted with said I did not need special permitting