International Pest Control – January/February 2022 – Vol 64, Nr.1
We are a little late getting this issue out in part due to the intervention of Covid but all well now and hopefully we will catch up during the year. We kick off with measuring a crop’s carbon footprint which seems timely following COP26. Arable agriculture has a role to play in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and Bayer’s new tool will allow buyers to compare the footprint of crops before they buy.
The IAEA has opened a new facility in Mexico close to its border with Guatemala to produce one billion sterilized fruit flies a week; an effort to protect the successful eradication in Mexico and eliminate the invasive pest from Guatemala as far south as Panama. Other news topics of interest include widening the hunt for novel chemistries at Bayer, a USDA lab opening up its pest identification system, castor bean farmers benefiting from a BASF 5-year programme and Microsoft getting involved in crop protection. And the good news is that chocolate is good for biodiversity!
We’ve a report on the BCPC 2021 annual conference by our expert team of Prof Graham Matthews and Dr Robin Blake. This was an interesting conference tackling key issues around the future of crop protection in the UK with some aspects that no doubt apply worldwide. Parasitec 2021 also happened and we’ve a short report. Pestworld 2021 kicked off in Las Vegas; a little harder for anyone outside the USA to get to! And back in the UK PestTech 2021 also returned – apparently with a bang!
The corporate sector has seen lots of activity with news from a host of companies.
In the Pests in the Food and Hospitality Sector section, Dr Zia Siddiqi looks at best practice, Alex Wade looks at the lifecycle of an infestation and Futura’s Sebastian Junge considers how technology can play an increasingly important role in controlling unwanted guests.
We jump to a paddy field and resident expert Dr Terry Mabbett has a quick look at the role of foliar zinc, fall armyworm gets raised to the status of “super-population” (doesn’t sound good) and maize is used to fight FAW on maize – amazing (sorry). In Kenya the focus is on using parasitoids to fight the pest.
Having a nose for a pest problem takes on a new meaning with the advent of a USDA system to sniff out whitefly infestations. In Dortmund they are seeking new ways to impact on the nervous system of pests without impacting on other species. In the UK crops are under threat from a fungus that causes Phoma on oilseed rape and brassica. It seems in every issue we report on a new threat!
Which brings us to the discovery of tree disease Phytophthora pluvialis in the UK, at first in Cornwall (as we reported in our last issue) but now throughout the western side of the UK. Our in-house specialist Dr Terry Mabbett considers how much a threat this disease could be to the UK’s commercial forestry and whether more species will be eliminated for the commercial forestry portfolio. We also take a look at the impact of tree loss, often due to introduced species, on biodiversity and consider research on the biodiversity of the fungus causing olive tree anthracnose. The forestry section concludes with a look at a technique for targeting systemic herbicide delivery into invasive weeds using a pellet “injection” process.
Finally we conclude as we started on the subject of climate change and the possibility of using seaweed to reduce the GHG emissions of livestock. This issue also benefits from having the index to 2021 issues.
We are always ready to accept articles for our regular sections or special topics so if you have some interesting research to report please do send in a short summary and we’ll be in touch.
Chris Endacott, Editor International Pest Control magazine
Email Chris on editor@international-pest-control.com
Contents International Pest Control January/February 2022
Volume 64, Number 1.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
- Bayer to launch digital carbon footprint measurement
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- Bayer seeks winning chemistries
- USDA lab develops & shares powerful pest ID tools
- BASF and partners publish results for ‘Pragati’
- Bayer and Microsoft enter into strategic partnership
- EPA releases new calculator and updated data
- And finally…Chocolate is good for biodiversity
ASSOCIATION & SOCIETY NEWS
- BCPC Congress, Harrogate, November 2021
- BCPC Award
- Parasitec visitor numbers grow
- PestWorld 2021 – Las Vegas
- PestTech comes back with a bang
COMPANY NEWS
- New Managing Director at ADAMA
- Rodrigo Santos named President of Crop Science division
- Biobest continues to grow relationships
Biological Services joins forces with BioResources
Biobest and Biotalys enter into strategic partnership - Restructuring at the Andermatt Group
- Albaugh acquire Rotam
- Botanical Solution Inc. (BSI) Secures $6.1 Million
- Bayer add 1env to their distributor list
- Certis Europe renews distribution agreement for Armicarb
- Pelsis Group
Pelsis Group acquires Spain’s Sanitrade and Vesta
Pelsis Group acquires Brandenburg
Pelsis Group appoints new CEO and CCO
Pelsis Group launches eight new retail products - Eurofins expands agricultural testing team
- National monitoring at hawker centres and wet markets
- Syngenta Crop Protection acquires two bioinsecticides
- Liphatech acquires all assets of Inert Gas Injection (IGI)
- All change at SynTech Research Group
SynTech Research continues its expansion
New global brand reinforces rapid growth
New Chief Executive Officer
SPECIAL FEATURE – Pests in the Food & Hospitality Industry
- Pests in the food and hospitality industry
- Past, present and future – The lifecycle of a pest infestation
- Digital solutions – Monitoring for the 21st Century
AGRICULTURE
- Plant micronutrient profile for zinc in rice
- African ‘super-population’ of fall armyworm
- Using maize to protect maize against fall armyworm
- Parasite helps Kenyan farmers fight FAW
- Sniffing out whitefly infestations
- Finding new channels to selectively target pest insects
- Phoma-causing fungus variant found in UK for first time
FORESTRY & PLANTATION
- How serious is Phytophthora pluvialis for UK forestry?
- Tree species loss has cumulative impact on biodiversity
- Biodiversity of the fungus causing olive tree anthracnose
- Stemming the tide of invasive weeds
- Tree of Heaven: biological control agent
ANIMAL HEALTH
- Seaweed could reduce livestock methane emissions.
CALENDAR
- Upcoming pest control events
INDEX
- International Pest Control Index Volume 63 – 2021
Published in International Pest Control – January/February 2022 issue.
Category: Issue Editorial & Contents