International Pest Control – May/June 2021 – Vol 63, Nr.3

IPCadmin | June 4, 2021

Cover Image: Fall armyworm – an invasive pest causing devastating impacts on crop productivity. The article on p162, Biological control of the alien invasive fall armyworm, looks at the use of natural enemies to reduce fall armyworm numbers.
Picture by Subramanian Sevgan, icipe

In this issue our special feature is Application Technology but we kick off our news section with the FAO’s review of progress in the fight against FAW which is one pest that seems to figure more and more frequently in our pages. Good progress, but more effort and funding needed would seem to be the verdict.

Bayer’s “Better Life Farming” partnership has received UN recognition and according to a team at CABI alien species are costing Africa $3.6 trillion a year. In South Africa, Bayer’s digital farming arm has launched FieldView and the company has also linked to the CLASS telematics product. And another attempt at costing the impact of invasive species, this time from CNRS, has come up with $1.3 trillion since 1970 – quite a lot less. The novIGRain project is gaining pace with all the key milestones met. And we close the news section with a look at the DNA of lettuce – from weed to vegetable in 6000 years.

In company news we learn that COVID does not seem to have stopped companies growing and collaborating. Several mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and agreements have been announced. New appointments are being made in the growing biopesticide sector and new products are also coming to the market from Certis. In Sri Lanka the SGS lab has achieved accreditation for testing pesticides and food products. Oxitec has achieved biosafety approval for its FAW product and has also received a US$6.8 million grant from the Welcome Trust to develop its product to control Aedes aegypti.

IPC technical consultant Professor Matthews introduces the Application Technology section with a look at the impact of climate change on application methods. Another of our technical consultants Dr Partho Dhang looks at the use of bait and application in pest control while Dr Terry Mabbett, also on our team, considers how hot and cold fogging can be used for indoor disinfection. Drones come to the fore in an article by Micron’s John Clayton and finally in this section Matthia Eberius from CROP.ZONE takes a look towards the future and the use of electrophysical methods of controlling weeds and haulm topping.

In public health Dr Zia Siddiqi, another of the IPC technical consultant panel, takes a look at the use of ultrasonic rodent repellents, an area of the market that is often inadequately regulated and one where some countries allow products to be sold with no requirement to prove efficacy.

Following on from our news story in the last issue, the team at icipe give us a detailed insight into their work on controlling FAW in Kenya using the pest’s natural enemies as part of a wider IPM strategy.

A team from Russell IPM introduce their work on monitoring and controlling the pests of glasshouses using a range of sticky traps in different colours and chemical lures. The growth of automatic detection of species caught on these traps means they may have a useful future in helping growers plan their control techniques without the need to have expertise in insect identification.

Climate friendly palm oil production may sound like an oxymoron but that is the aim of research from WUR who are trying to improve yields from existing plantations and thereby prevent further loss of rainforest and peatland.

As ever we are always interested in receiving articles that will be of interest to our readers and our next issue has a focus on the Control of Disease Vectors – we would be especially interested in articles about the control of neglected tropical diseases or the control of vectors relevant to animal health. Guidance regarding articles can be found on our web pages or you can just email the editor with your proposal – I look forward to hearing from you!

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

Contents International Pest Control May/June 2021
Volume 63, Number 3.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

FAO: Fight against FAW – good progress, more efforts needed.
Bayer and Better Life Farming partners receive UN recognition.
Alien species cost Africa’s agriculture USD $3.6 trillion a year.
Climate FieldView™, launched in South Africa and linked to CLAAS.
Cost of invasive species: $1.3 trillion since 1970.
Tanzania and IFAD partner to boost productivity.
novIGRain Consortium news – Project sticking to schedule despite the impact of COVID.
…And finally…The DNA of lettuce: 6000 years from weed to vegetable.

ASSOCATION & SOCIETY NEWS

CEPA – The European Pest Management Services Association.
SUD Review: Bioprotection-biocontrol technologies crucial.

COMPANY NEWS

Agricultural testing grows with new acquisition.
Australia’s Biological Services and Biobest join forces.
Agrauxine and DECCO Announce Distribution Agreement.
New commercial leaders for Bayer Crop Science.
BioConsortia Appoints IP & Portfolio Strategist.
CERTIS news
- Certis Europe develops Kumiai herbicide ‘Effeeda®’.
- New biostimulant products in Certis Spain.
GS lab becomes first in Sri Lanka to be accredited.
Pelsis on the acquisition trail.
Staff changes at i2LResearch.
Oxitec news
- Oxitec receives biosafety approval for FAW control.
- USD $6.8 million funding from Wellcome Trust.