From Olive Lace Bug to a Successful Gippsland Olive Harvest

When a local Gippsland olive grower discovered olive lace bug across their grove, they knew the trees needed attention.

The challenge was not finding the problem—it was working out how to treat approximately 500 olive trees quickly and effectively.

A job that could have taken weeks

The grower already had a treatment in mind and initially planned to apply it using a 14-litre backpack mister.

One full backpack covered only around three trees and took approximately 15 minutes of spraying. Across 500 trees, that added up to more than 40 hours of spraying alone—before accounting for walking back to the garage, measuring, mixing and repeatedly refilling the tank.

It would have been physically demanding and could have taken days or even weeks to complete.

Meanwhile, the olive lace bug was continuing to affect the grove, raising concerns about the health of the trees and the upcoming harvest.

That was when the grower contacted Swift Drone Solutions.

Bringing the right people together

Before spraying, we helped connect the grower with an agronomist who could properly assess the grove and provide professional advice.

The agronomist confirmed the treatment approach and also identified nutritional deficiencies affecting the trees. Based on that advice, the final application included both an insecticide treatment and a foliar fertiliser.

This is an important part of how Swift Drone Solutions operates.

We provide the aerial application service, but chemical selection, application rates and agronomic recommendations remain with the landowner and their chosen agronomist or chemical professional. When a customer needs that support, we can help connect them with someone we trust.

Five hundred trees sprayed in hours

Once the chemical plan was confirmed, the drone went to work above the olive grove.

Flying over the rows allowed the treatment to be applied from above without someone carrying a heavy backpack through the entire property.

In approximately four to five hours, all 500 trees had been treated.

The drone helped the grower:

• Treat the entire grove promptly

• Reduce hours of physical labour

• Avoid repeated mixing and backpack refilling

• Apply the agronomist-recommended treatment across the trees

• Respond before further damage threatened the harvest

From visible recovery to locally produced olive oil

Following the application, the olive lace bug was reduced and the trees showed visible signs of recovery.

Most importantly, the grower was able to complete a successful harvest—the outcome they had been worried they might lose.

During a later visit at harvest time, we saw the results firsthand and even had the opportunity to meet the property’s Highland cows.

The recovered grove went on to produce delicious, locally made Gippsland olive oil.

For Swift Drone Solutions, this job was about more than spraying trees. It was about helping another local business solve a serious problem, connecting them with the right expertise and applying the treatment efficiently enough to protect what they had worked hard to grow.

We are proud to support Gippsland farmers and producers with airborne precision and ground-level results.

Have an orchard, grove or tall crop that is difficult to treat from the ground?

Contact Josh at Swift Drone Solutions on 0493 043 795.

Based in Yinnar—servicing Gippsland.