International Pest Control – May/June 2024 – Vol 66, Nr.3

IPCadmin | June 17, 2024

COVER IMAGE : Perennial flower margin bordering a commercial apple orchard
Picture by University of Reading, Charlotte Howard

I’ll start with an apology to those of you who were anticipating a special feature on Vertebrate Pests. It turns out this was a bad choice on my part as we had no-one stepping up to write articles and perhaps this topic may be regarded as old hat.What is definitely not out of fashion is the use of genetics in pest control and I could have made a new Special Feature on that topic alone by drawing together the many articles in this issue. Also filling my inbox (almost typed in-tray – remember those?) are articles on invasive species and the impact of climate change on pests – present and future.

Maybe it’s time to review our more traditional sections? And while we don’t have a Special Feature, we do still have 56 pages of pest control related articles which I hope you will find of interest.

We kick off with an article that I find exciting – the funding of the digitisation of the UK’s Natural History Museum collections. This is not only good for researchers in the UK: it has a worldwide impact as researchers around the world will be able to access the museum’s amazing collections from their desktop. For many of us the word agriculture conjures up thoughts of agribusiness and 1,000 hectare farms with big machinery yet worldwide it is the family farm that feeds 70% of the population. We carry an interview with Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The first article with a genetic bias is the news of innovation funding for a group of UK organisations with the aim of simplifying and speeding up the transition of cutting-edge genome research tools, workflows, and software into industrial applications.

Association News kicks off with a report from Dr Partho Dhang from the 15th Pacific Rim Termite Research Group (PRTRG) Conference in Manila. We also report on the new Asia Pest Management Association as well as activity at CRRU and NPMA.

Company news includes Bayer, BASF, Certis Belchim, Biobest Group, OCS, PestPac, Orkin, Wade Environmental, Syngenta and Bionema.

In Public Health we discover that modifying mosquito fertility may result in an alternative way of reducing the pool of harmful human viruses circulating in insect populations and Syngenta claims to have a solution for the control of German Cockroach.

Agriculture is a full section with articles on FAW, individually tailored RNA or DNA-based molecules to reliably fight off viral infections in plants, Rothamsted’s view on the impact of a glyphosate ban on UK agriculture, how baculoviruses infect the insect brain, how fungi infect insects, new rice varieties to fight rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) and the need to substantially improve rice production in Africa.

Understanding caterpillars’ sensory world and the monitoring of Echinothrips are the subjects of interest in Horticulture & Amenity while in Forestry & Plantation papaya mealybug, Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW), air samplers, sugar cane’s genetic code, protecting apples with flowers, a weakness in the spotted lantern fly’s defences and the spread of Panama disease all feature.

In Climate Change we discover how ozone removes the mating barrier between insect species resulting in sterility, learn about biocontrol of invasive water lettuce, and we close with an article on how forest soils can help fight climate change.
In the next issue I hope to have a special feature on the control of biting invertebrates, which reminds me, the bug of this issue is the bedbug. So, if you think you have some interesting thoughts about controlling biting invertebrates do let me know!!

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