Public Health
Coping with dead rodent odours
Pest Control Professionals (PCPs) are often confronted with horrible odours from dead rodents. The death could have been natural, from the use of a rodenticide, or from a trap that struck the rodent, did not capture it, but was fatal. If the technician is lucky, they can find and remove the dead carcass. If the […]
An innovative year-round larvicide for mosquito control
Mosquitoes are considered one of the most serious vectors of some of the world’s deadly diseases afflicting the tropical and subtropical countries. One of the devastating mosquito transmitted diseases, malaria is known to be endemic in 117 countries with 3.2 billion people living at risk all over the world and about 350 to 500 million […]
Remote monitoring for bed bugs
A global bed bug (Cimex lectularius) resurgence has continued throughout the past two decades, following a period of relative absence for most of the world between 1960 and 2000 (Boase, 2001; Reinhardt & Siva-Jothy, 2007). The cause of the modern resurgence is likely to be the result of multiple factors facilitating their survival, reproduction and […]
Genetically engineered Aedes aegypti
After extensive evaluation of the best available science and public input, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted an experimental use permit (EUP) to Oxitec Ltd to field test the use of genetically engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes as a way to reduce mosquito populations to protect public health from mosquito-borne illnesses. The EPA claimed […]
Preliminary tests to validate the effectiveness of the Inpest pheromone dispenser patch
Monitoring traps are often used to catch certain species of stored product insect pests and in these traps a pheromone attractant is used to lure the insects. Once attracted, a sticky board or bucket captures the insect. In the case of stored product moths, the pheromones are sex attractants which attract only males of the […]
How climate change is creating a global pest problem
Rentokil Steritech have identified climate change as a factor that is accelerating the damages caused by pests, which could result in a wider spread of infectious diseases, increased crop destruction, extensive electrical damage and food safety issues. As most pests are more prevalent in warmer climates, the impact of an increasing temperature could be potentially […]
Agriculture
IPM to fight fall armyworm
CABI scientists are recommending the use of more environmentally sustainable biological controls, as part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy, to fight the fall armyworm (FAW) instead of favouring more harmful pesticides. In a new paper published in the International Journal of Pest Management, Dr Justice Tambo led a team of researchers who suggest […]
Smartphone app is the farmer’s newest weapon in crop protection
Scientists are creating a new smartphone app to help farmers and growers tackle the pests destroying their crops, and it could soon have a major impact on the way information about the natural world is gathered, stored and accessed worldwide. The team of researchers from the University of Lincoln, UK, is designing and building the […]
DNA scan crop failure solution is a UK first
In a UK first, a pioneering scientific research company has introduced a new way for growers to test their plants and crops for harmful fungi and bacteria, allowing action to be taken before it’s too late. Eurofins Agro UK has introduced scientific testing to the UK which can detect an issue before it becomes visible, […]
The first isopropanol-azole is introduced to the market
Farmers face many challenges in managing their farms profitably, including fewer products available to address increasing resistance. This reduction stems from steadily tightening regulations and the difficulty of finding new active ingredients. BASF’s fungicide innovation Revysol® is the first isopropanol-azole being introduced to the market. This makes its approval in the EU an important milestone […]
Celebrating 60 years – Matthews’s memoires 1 (1950’s-60’s)
The year before International Pest Control magazine was first published, I graduated from Imperial College in 1957. On the day the results came out, I was on a one-man expedition travelling to West Africa on an Elder Dempster cargo ship, the m.v. Ebani. This was the idea of Geoffrey Brett, at the Ministry of Agriculture, […]
Advances in Precision Farming Technologies for Crop Protection
Precision farming involves the collection of data by observation and measurement, and the subsequent response. Sensing is key to the collection of data; whether this is remote from space by satellites, by aircraft or drones, or by proximal sensors used on the ground, mounted on vehicles or otherwise. Responses are increasingly automated and data are […]
Horticulture & Amenity
Monitoring and trapping with sticky traps, what’s new?
One hundred years ago, it was observed that greenhouse whiteflies, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera, Aleyrodidae) are particularly attracted to opaque yellow traps (Lloyd, 1921). Today, millions of sticky traps (card or plastic covered with a thin layer of a clear adhesive substance) of different colours are used worldwide. They are used for the monitoring, decision […]
Natural weapon used by marigolds
Scientists have revealed for the first time the natural weapon used by marigolds to protect tomato plants against destructive whiteflies. Researchers from Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences carried out a study to prove what gardeners around the world have known for generations – marigolds repel tomato whiteflies. Publishing their findings in the […]
More sustainable tea production in India
CABI scientists have revealed that India’s tea – which accounts for around 27 percent of the world’s tea production – could be protected from devastating crop pests with more environmentally friendly and sustainable biological controls rather than an over reliance on pesticides. As part of research funded by Unilever and working with partners including the […]
Development of fruit fly control strategies
The Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae) constitutes one of the key pests of citrus, being the target of many IPM programs around the Mediterranean Sea. This species has a great ability to disperse, to use alternative hosts and displays a great developmental plasticity allowing it to survive most of the year, contributing […]
Managing SWD – a fly of mass destruction
There are approximately 1,500 known species in the genus Drosophila. Although sometimes called fruit flies, true fruit flies belong to the family Tephritidae and are larger in size. The majority of Drosophila flies are associated with rotten or over-ripened fruits and are nuisance pests. However, a few species such as the Spotted-Wing Drosophila (SWD), Drosophila […]
World Pest Awareness Day
The 6th June 2017 has been declared World Pest Awareness Day to serve as a reminder of how professional pest management helps protect our quality of life. Three global pest management associations; The Confederation of European Pest Management Associations (CEPA), the Federation of Asian and Oceania Pest Managers’ Association (FAOPMA) and the @NationalPestManagementAssn (USA), have […]
Forestry & Plantation
Biological fungicide reveals disease resistance in Cameroon
Russell Bio Solutions has developed an effective microbial fungicide, Dynamic WP. It is a powerful broad-spectrum biological fungicide and bactericide that can be applied to a wide range of crops to suppress fungal diseases. Other target diseases include wheat smut, Fusarium root rot, Banana Panama and Sigatoka disease, powdery mildew, early and late blight, and […]
First ever plantain resistant to banana streak virus
Using the gene editing tool CRISPR, a team of scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has announced that they have developed banana and plantain varieties that are resistant to banana streak virus (BSV). BSV is hampering the crop’s production in Africa and threatening the food and income of millions of farmers. BSV […]
A tale of two squirrels
The two species of squirrel resident in the United Kingdom (UK) are Sciurus vulgaris (native European Red Squirrel) and Sciurus carolinensis (North American Eastern Grey Squirrel), the latter introduced as a fashionable addition to estates in the 1870’s. Its population of 2.5 million is spread over most of the UK and dwarves the 140,000 native […]
Cabbage Skunk weed Lysichitum americanum in wet woodlands: biology; invasiveness and control in the UK
The invasive Cabbage Skunk weed, Lysichitum americanum, is native to swamps and along streams in woodlands in the north-west of North America. It is named due to its distinctive “skunky” odour that it emits when it blooms and attracts its pollinators – scavenging flies and beetles. The name is also used for the eastern skunk […]
Current and future Insect Threats to UK Forestry
Introduction The beginning of the 21st century has seen an unprecedented assault on the UK by invasive forest pests and diseases (Defra 2013; Figure 1). Some of these new pests and diseases have attracted much media attention and have increased political awareness, e.g. the large scale death of larch caused by Phytophothora ramorum and ash […]
Tree care package to preserve iconic palm trees
A new Syngenta tree care package could now save southern Europe’s iconic palm trees from the devastating effects of the Red Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus). The treatment, which involves direct micro-injection of a targeted insecticide into the trunk of affected trees, has been fully approved in France and granted emergency approval to tackle the increasing […]
Animal Health
New sub-Saharan infectious disease surveillance program
The African Small Companion Animal Network (AFSCAN), a project of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s (WSAVA) charitable foundation, has launched a significant new sub-Saharan infectious disease surveillance program. With Bayer Animal Health as the major sponsor, the program will provide novel data on the prevalence and distribution of ectoparasites and arthropod-borne infectious diseases of […]
Pests & Our Pets: Keeping Companion Animals Safer
With all the damage that pests can cause to businesses, agriculture and even the environment itself, sometimes it’s simply a necessity to use things like pesticides and other ways to keep their populations at bay. But rather than waiting until they’ve become a problem, either in our homes or towards our pets, it’s better to […]
Augmenting the Efficacy of Fungal and Mycotoxin Control via Chemosensitization
Mycotoxins, fungicides and crop production Infection of crops by fungal pathogens, especially those that produce mycotoxins, e.g., aflatoxins, fumonisins, zearalenone, patulin, ochratoxins, etc., is problematic because effective fungicides for eliminating mycotoxigenic fungi, especially fungicide-resistant pathogens, are sometimes very limited. Recent data showed that mycotoxin contamination damages around 25% of global food and feed crop production […]
Large-scale Monitoring of Insecticide Susceptibility in Cat Fleas, Ctenocephalides felis
Introduction The cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) (Figure 1) is the most important ectoparasite of domestic cats and dogs worldwide. Infestations can lead to skin inflammation and cause flea allergy dermatitis, and fleas are also capable of transmitting several other parasites and diseases between animals and, indirectly, to humans. Fleas have a homometabolous life-cycle […]
An innovative approach in poultry mite management
Insecticides have greatly improved human health and agricultural production worldwide, however their usefulness has been limited by the evolution of resistance in many major pests, with the addition factor that some species become pests only as a result of insecticide use. This aspect opens new avenues to look for insecticide formulation with new and innovative […]
H5N8 Avian Influenza: Assessing Entry Routes into Europe
The precise route of introduction of the H5N8 virus into Europe still remains uncertain, says a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) scientific report generated in collaboration with Member States and the European Union (EU) Reference Laboratory. Having been detected on poultry farms in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, EFSAsays it is “plausible” that […]
Special Features
The future evolution of pest control
Organized pest control has a long history that dates to 4000 BC when the first ever pest control solution – sulphur – was used in ancient Sumer to keep insects away from crops. Since then, pest control has seen steady progress, from botanical products used as fungicides for seed treatments in China, to professional “rat-catchers” […]
Using pesticides in amenity areas
Using pesticides in amenity areas such as parks, golf courses and other areas open to the public has to conform to the EU regulations in a similar manner to protecting crops on farms. The main difference is that there are a diverse range of spray targets which frequently have to be treated using manually carried […]
Managing the problem of leatherjacket at UK airports
UK airports recently faced an issue due to the removal of a chemical, or to be precise the lack of knowledge regarding its avail- ability. The application of European EC Regulation 2009/128/EC, applied by the UK, led to the nationwide withdrawal of Chlorpyrifos. However, since the 1960’s chlorpyrifos had helped in the control of larvae […]
Barriers to the adoption of GM crops
The use of genetic engineering techniques in agriculture and food production is seen as an exciting and valuable development by many. They welcome the improvements in production efficiency that they bring to farmers and the enhanced nutritional value that can benefit consumers. Others however, have objected strongly, raising environmental, food safety, and ethical concerns. A […]
Improved monitoring and potential control for the Asian Tiger mosquito
Aedes albopictus, also known as the Asian tiger mosquito, flourishes in a variety of habitats including residential and agricultural areas. It is present on 6 of the world’s 7 continents and is a competent vector of at least 22 different arboviruses including all 4 serotypes of dengue. Current control efforts for Aedes albopictus include source […]
Phlebotomine Sandflies and the control of Leishmaniasis
The disease leishmaniasis has come again into prominence with renewed efforts in India to control the insect vectors of the disease. Many soldiers were affected by the disease during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most common form of the disease is Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, which causes an open sore at the bite sites, which […]
Other Recent Articles
Rothamsted Research
WANTED: LARGE WHITE BUTTERFLY CATERPILLARS Help needed for research into biological control of pests https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/wanted-large-white-butterfly-caterpillars WANTED: ARE YOU BLIGHTED BY WIREWORM? Study into new control methods looking for people with a pest problem https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/wanted-are-you-blighted-wireworm
Company Profile…Barkwith brings regulatory clarity
The European regulatory landscape for the control of chemicals has changed beyond recognition over the last two decades. Murray Smedley, Managing Director of Barkwith Associates takes a look back and considers what the future might bring as his Company celebrates 20 years of providing regulatory support. Having held a variety of technical roles working closely […]
