2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021
BUSINESS & AG
Drones vs. moths: Dutch use hi-tech to protect crops
By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press
MONSTER, Netherlands —
Dutch cress grower Rob Baan
has enlisted high-tech helpers to
tackle a pest in his greenhouses:
palm-sized drones seek and
destroy moths that produce cater-
pillars that can chew up his crops.
“I have unique products where
you don’t get certifi cation to
spray chemicals and I don’t want
it,” Baan said in an interview in
a greenhouse bathed in the pink
glow of LED lights that help his
seedlings grow. His company,
Koppert Cress, exports aromatic
seedlings, plants and fl owers to
top-end restaurants around the
world.
A keen adopter of innovative
technology in his greenhouses,
Baan turned to PATS Indoor
Drone Solutions, a startup that
is developing autonomous drone
systems as greenhouse sentinels,
to add another layer of protection
for his plants.
The drones themselves are
basic, but they are steered by
smart technology aided by special
cameras that scan the airspace in
greenhouses.
The drones instantly kill
the moths by fl ying into them,
destroying them in midair.
JOBLESS
Continued from Page 1B
December, according to the
state’s report. Unemploy-
ment in Union County in
that span moved also fell
by a 10th of a percent while
Baker County’s fell by half
a percent.
Nonfarm payroll
employment rose 8,300 jobs
in January, following a loss
of 27,500 in December, the
employment department
reported. Three industries
each added close to 2,000
jobs in January: retail trade
(+2,100 jobs); leisure and
hospitality (+2,100); and
private educational ser-
vices (+1,900). Two of the
major industries cut about
1,000 jobs: transportation,
warehousing, and utilities
(-1,000 jobs) and construc-
tion (-800).
Despite the net job gain
in January, employment
remains substantially below
pre-pandemic levels, the
state reported.
Total nonfarm payroll
employment has dropped
162,800 jobs, or 8.3%, since
January 2020. Nearly all
industries have cut jobs
during that time. Leisure
and hospitality is down
76,800 jobs, or 35.6%, since
January 2020. Private edu-
cational services experi-
enced the second largest
percentage decline in that
time, as it cut 8,400 jobs, or
22.6%.
The only industry to add
jobs in the past 12 months
was transportation, ware-
housing and utilities, which
added 4,100 jobs, or 5.6%.
Newly revised employ-
ment numbers show job
growth was stronger than
initially reported in the
second half of 2020. The
trend in the last six months
of the year was revised
upward by an average of
8,700 jobs. However, the
pandemic-induced drop
during the spring of 2020
was 8,000 jobs larger than
previously estimated.
Manufacturing was
looking better than the pre-
vious estimates indicated,
with upward revisions of
about 2,300 jobs during
the last six months of 2020,
according to the report.
Nondurable goods manu-
facturing has added 3,500
jobs since April. Similarly,
wholesale trade employ-
ment was revised upward;
it added 1,500 jobs since
its spring-2020 low point.
Professional and technical
services was also revised
upward substantially. It
employed 101,100 jobs in
January, which was essen-
tially equal to its high
point of a year ago. For
the December data, only
three major industries were
revised downward substan-
tially due to the annual revi-
sions: retail trade (-2,200
jobs); transportation, ware-
housing, and utilities
(-1,500); and private educa-
tional services (-1,500).
Mike Corder/Associated Press
A moth-killing drone hovers over crops in a greenhouse in Monster, Netherlands, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. A
Dutch startup is using drones to kill moths in midair as a way of protecting valuable crops in greenhouses
that are damaged by caterpillars.
“So it sees the moth fl ying by,
it knows where the drone is ...
and then it just directs the drone
towards the moth,” said PATS
chief technical offi cer Kevin van
Hecke.
There weren’t any moths
around on a recent greenhouse
visit by The Associated Press,
but the company has released
video shot in a controlled envi-
ronment that shows how one bug
is instantly pulverized by a drone
rotor.
The drones form part of an
array of pest control systems in
Baan’s greenhouses that also
includes other bugs, pheromone
traps and bumblebees.
The drone system is the brain-
child of former students from the
Technical University in Delft who
thought up the idea after won-
dering if they might be able to use
drones to kill mosquitos buzzing
around their rooms at night.
Baan says the drone control
system is smart enough to dis-
tinguish between good and bad
critters.
“You don’t want to kill a
ladybug, because a ladybug is
very helpful against aphids,” he
said. “So they should kill the
bad ones, not the good ones.
And the good ones are some-
times very expensive — I pay at
least 50 cents for one bumblebee,
so I don’t want them to kill my
bumblebees.”
The young company is still
working to perfect the technology.
“It’s still a development
product, but we ... have very
good results. We are targeting
moths and we are taking out
moths every night in an autono-
mous way without human inter-
vention,” said PATS CEO Bram
Tijmons. “I think that’s a good
step forward.”
Baan also acknowledges that
the system still needs refi ning.
“I think they still need too
many drones ... but it will be
manageable, it will be less,” he
said. “I think they can do this
greenhouse in the future maybe
with 50 small drones, and then
it’s very benefi cial.”
Business column: Use these common tools
to save you time and money on your taxes
eceipts, like mem-
ories, tend to fade
with time. That’s
just one reason to digi-
tize and track tax-related
information. The right
apps and habits can save
space, time, money and
hassle — but only if you
use them.
R
LIZ
WESTON
NERDWALLET
“Apps should make
things easier, not more
complicated,” says Clare
Levison, a certifi ed public
accountant in Blacksburg,
Virginia. “The defi nition of
a good app is what works
for you, not the one that’s
the trendiest.”
Use tools that
you already have
Apps don’t have to be
elaborate. The camera on
your phone, for example,
can capture receipts and
other documentation.
Levison recommends reg-
ularly transferring those
images to a designated
folder in your photo app to
make them easier to fi nd
later.
“You don’t want those
photos mixed in with all
your other selfi es and
whatever,” Levison says.
Similarly, you can
create folders in your
email account to collect
tax-related documents. If
you’re an active investor,
for example, you can put
your trade confi rmations
there (or set up a fi lter
so the confi rmations are
routed there automati-
cally). If you purchase
supplies for your business
online, a folder can collect
emailed receipts.
Another common-
place tool that can be
helpful, especially for
anyone claiming business
expenses or mileage, is a
calendar app. These
records can help
document meetings
with clients, busi-
ness travel and other
potentially deduct-
ible events.
“The IRS auditor
always asks for a copy
of my calendar,” says
Leonard Wright, a San
Diego CPA who’s been
audited four times.
Calendar records
should be kept for at
least seven years, which
is how long the IRS typ-
ically has to audit you.
(There’s no time limit if
the agency suspects tax
fraud, however, so be sure
your choice of electronic
calendar lets you retain
enough history.)
You also need to reg-
ularly download monthly
statements from your
fi nancial institutions, says
Kelley C. Long, a CPA
and personal fi nance spe-
cialist in Chicago.
If the IRS suspects
you’ve underreported
income, it may ask for
bank and brokerage state-
ments. If you use a credit
card for business or other
tax-related purposes,
those statements can help
support your deductions.
While the institutions
are required to keep your
records for several years,
you may have to pay fees
to access older statements.
Be sure you’re
storing for
the long term
Ideally, your computer
and phone are already
being backed up into the
cloud so that you can
access your data if the
devices are lost, stolen
or destroyed. If not, you
want to make sure that at
least your tax information
is regularly transferred
to a secure cloud storage
system or other safe, off-
site location.
The key is to keep
information safe and
accessible, which means
choosing electronic over
paper wherever possible.
Paper is bulky, ineffi cient
and vulnerable to all kinds
of disasters, including fi re
and fl ood. Ink can fade,
particularly on receipts
needed to document
expenses (credit card or
bank statements typically
aren’t considered enough
documentation without the
accompanying receipts).
“I usually tell business
owners, ‘No receipt, then
no deduction,’” says Bob
Fay, a CPA in Canton,
Ohio, who is also a con-
sumer fi nancial education
advocate for the Amer-
ican Institute of Certifi ed
Public Accountants. “This
is a short message that
sticks with them as they
have so much on their
plate every day.”
But the time the IRS
gets around to asking for
those receipts, all you may
have left is fl imsy, unread-
able paper if you haven’t
captured a digital version,
The most valuable and respected
source of local news, advertising and
information for our communities.
Levison says.
Also, paper documents
can cost you more.
“People still give their
CPAs literally a shoebox,”
Long says. “What your
CPA does then is pay one
of their interns to scan all
that stuff into their sys-
tems and they charge you
for that.”
Consider specialized
apps to make it
easy
Sometimes, special-
ized apps can make sense.
Scanner apps can help
you capture tax-related
paperwork, and some have
optical character recog-
nition that allows you to
turn images into editable
— and searchable — fi les.
If you have an iPhone
or iPad and itemize your
expenses, ItsDeductible
and iDonatedIt can help
you track charitable gifts
throughout the year and
fi nd values for noncash
donations, such as clothes
and household goods.
(These apps don’t have
Android versions.)
Apps that create
expense reports, such as
Expensify or Everlance,
can help gig workers
and other self-employed
people track business-re-
lated costs.
Wright, the much-au-
dited CPA, swears by apps
that help track mileage,
such as MileIQ, TripLog
or Everlance.
“Many of these apps
are easy to maintain and
allow you to track and dis-
tinguish between busi-
ness or personal use,”
Wright says. “They’re so
simple you can do that
while you’re in line at the
supermarket.”
But it’s crucial to
develop the habit of using
the apps and other pro-
cesses you set up, says
CPA Tim Todd of Lynch-
burg, Virginia. Otherwise,
you’re not creating the
digital paper trail you’ll
need to survive an audit.
Plus, you could be costing
yourself money.
“Keeping records in
real time can also help
make sure you don’t forget
those items come tax
time,” Todd says.
———
Liz Weston is a col-
umnist for the personal
fi nance website Nerd-
Wallet.com, which provides
columns to The Associated
Press.
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