News

South African wine producer drone-drops wasps on vineyard

29 August 2024 By Sarah Neish

Vergelegen Wine Estate in the Western Cape is using drones to drop “predatory wasps” on its vineyards, which it hopes will control pests and outbreaks of leafroll virus.

South Africa’s renowned Vergelegen Wine Estate has partnered with SkyBugs and agritech company Aerobotics to drop wasps onto its vineyards. SkyBugs provide the insects, while Aerobotics supplies the drones which will fly over the estate and facilitate the drop.

Drones will fly roughly 30m above the vines, before a “plastic film unfolds, releasing wasp pupae (the stage between larva and adult),” Matt Davis, head of mapping operations at Aerobotics, told CNN.

Around 500 wasps will be released per drop, and the insects are indigenous to South Africa.

The wine estate hopes that the wasps, once fully grown, will destroy mealybugs in the vines. Mealybugs are one of the key culprits in causing leafroll virus, which results in bunches of grapes ripening unevenly and taking a longer time to build up the sugars necessary for winemaking.

According to SkyBugs, the wasp drone method is faster and cheaper than spraying pesticides. The wasps lay eggs inside the mealybugs, eating them from the inside out and diminishing the risk of the virus spreading through the vineyard.

Heritage vines

The first vines were planted at Vergelegen in 1700, and in 1992 Baron Eric de Rothschild, owner of Château Lafite in Bordeaux, transformed the estate by building a sunken hilltop winery there. In 2019, Vergelegen was declared a provincial heritage site in the Western Cape.

The estate has been owned by Anglo American, a British multinational mining company with headquarters in London, since 1987. Anglo American also owns famous South African winery Boschendal, which it acquired in 1969.

Just 3km from the Atlantic Ocean, Vergelegen’s vineyards comprise Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Sémillon.