HortiPest offers multiple ways to reach the goal of pest identification.
Search by picture
Within this way, the user can compare pictures of pest insects ordered by insect order.
Search by name
Under this menu item the user can find a sortable and searchable table with scientific and English common names of the insect pests
Search by pest key
The user is asked questions concerning the appearance of the insect, e.g. number of wings.
Search by damage key
Questions relating to the crop damage are asked, like location or type of the damage.
Search by affected crop
Due the fact that most of the pests have a narrow field of host plants tables of pests which infest particular plant families and a key to identify the pest exactly are provided.
After the search
The user clicks on the relevant insect pest and a description of the insect is shown. The description contains the host plants and damage, morphology and biology, and monitoring. After the description the app suggests an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy, e.g. choice of location, choice of variety, agricultural engineering (e.g. cultivation under nets), promotion of beneficial insects ahead chemical plant protection.
Further functions
The app also contains a glossary of technical terms of integrated pest management.