MEALYBUG is an all-too-familiar pest that causes extensive crop damage each year for produce growers across the region and beyond.
The sap-sucking insect thrives in warm climates like Sunraysia’s, embedding itself among the bark in the lower section of grape vines during its dormant period.
It often lies undetected until maturation, when the population increases and travels up the trunk and into the vines, destroying crops and causing financial loss for many growers.
Robinvale local and engineer Vince Fotia hopes his creation, Bark Buster, will provide a solution to the problem.
“I have a background in farming, so I know first-hand the devastating affect this pest can have,” Mr Fotia said.
“Every farmer has faced it at one time or another, including me, and it’s often unavoidable unfortunately.
“I had growers coming to me asking how they could easily remove the bark from the trunk of the vine to expose the mealybug in order to maximise the exposure and make spraying more efficient, so I got to work on creating a tool to help.”
After extensive research and the creation of many different prototypes, Mr Fotia produced the Bark Buster — a stainless steel, abrasive hand tool that easily rids the trunk of bark.
But he says it wasn’t without trial and error.
“It definitely took a lot of work and a few attempts at getting it right,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe there wasn’t something like it on the market already, to be honest.
“Research and agronomists agree that removing the bark is necessary to expose the bug and allow sprays to penetrate more efficiently.
“Once I created the prototype, the feedback was great — people were saying it made the job much easier and that’s what I wanted at the end of the day.”
Bark Buster is now sold in stores across the region, which Mr Fotia said he was “thrilled with”.
“Swan Hill Chemicals and Robinvale and Mildura Ag Supplies have now jumped on board and are stocking the product, which is fantastic,” he said.
“As a local, to see a tool that I created in stores in my own region just makes me really proud.”
