International Pest Control – July/August 2024 – Vol 66, Nr.4

IPCadmin | August 2, 2024

COVER IMAGE: Aedes aegypti, vector of dengue – the most important mosquito-borne virus in the world
Picture by James Gathany, CDC

Back on track this issue… the Special Feature section returns and there is no shortage of articles about Biting Insects. We may now have a malaria vaccine that is over 70% effective in children (do watch the BBC Horizon documentary “The Battle to Beat Malaria” if you haven’t already – but only after you’ve read this issue!). Unfortunately, there are other diseases carried by biting insects knocking on the door of human mortality, foremost amongst them dengue, and we have an update on the year to date with the latest figures suggesting over 10 million cases so far in 2024.

But before we get to the Special Feature we have our usual news section which kicks off with more genetic engineering (a theme of the last issue), this time targeted at making a plant produce all the sugars needed to make the perfect infant formula milk. We then report on the drought affecting 30 million people in Southern Africa, and in particular Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Inequality in research is reported to be stifling research in Africa, while there is concern that the agricultural models to optimise yield rarely consider the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Finally in this section I could not resist a report on how weed control is critical to golf ball roll on greens – who knew?

Our bug of the issue is the black garden ant, prone to invading your home as it forages for food.

We report on the Pestworld 2024 programme, new scholarships, NPMA’s key partner programme, the June Global Food Safety Summit, this year’s forthcoming IPM Symposium at Swansea University (2-4 September 2024) and the 5th AAB PlantEd Congress in October.

The company news section is jammed with acquisitions, appointments, renamings and product launches from Stara, Andermatt, BioFirst, Earlham Institute, Bayer, Nurture Group, Oxitec and BASF.

Our company profile is the launch of the Natural Products BioHUB, at Swansea University with a full report on this novel startup which aims to foster innovation and collaboration in the field of natural product research and development.

Which brings us to those Biting Insects of Special Feature fame. We kick off with a history of the bed bug – better read at breakfast than at supper – before we get into an update of the dengue crisis in the FAOPMA region by Stephen Doggett. Our own advisor Dr Partho Dhang takes a look at the growing nuisance of sandflies in the Philippine islands while Dr Hassam Nayem reviews the use of Bti for mosquito control. We finish with a short article which links obesity with the severity of dengue in children.

Multiple-herbicide resistant (MHR) waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus) could be controlled by diflufenican, a new mode of action herbicide for preemergence use in corn. A study of plant immune systems may allow improved disease resistance. A protective microbiome could help bolster food security and help the environment while in Italy genetically engineered rice resistant to rice blast is undergoing field trials. Finally we take a look at how foliar feeds can make African maize more productive and better able to resist attack by pests and diseases.

In Horticulture the search continues for benign pesticides that are target specific – and one find is a sort of glue that sticks the insect to the plant. Also in this section is a bizarre – and dare I say Heath-Robinson machine – that sucks white fly off glasshouse crop plants! And we finish this section with a look at why some plant diseases like the big city.

Dr Terry Mabbett wonders if the UK Government’s BTOM (Border Target Operating Model) is fit for purpose: it is designed to prevent further entry of insect pests like oak processionary moth which first arrived in UK on oak tree planting material imported from a range of EU countries.

Chris Endacott, Editor International Pest Control magazine
editor@international-pest-control.com