{"id":8240,"date":"2020-09-11T13:28:09","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T12:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/?p=8240"},"modified":"2021-02-12T08:56:20","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T08:56:20","slug":"international-pest-control-july-august-2020-vol-62-nr-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/international-pest-control-july-august-2020-vol-62-nr-4\/","title":{"rendered":"International Pest Control \u2013 July\/August 2020 \u2013 Vol 62, Nr.4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Cover Image: <\/strong>The Small Robot Company\u2019s Tech team with the next generation scanning robot \u2018Tom\u2019. Credit:<\/strong>\u00a0Small Robot Company<\/p><\/div>\n

Whenever an economic or health crisis hits the world it seems it is the poor who pay the heaviest price and so it is with Covid-19. Smallholders do not have deep pockets, large cash reserves and access to cheap loans and government support. But help for some is coming from what might seem an unlikely source: Bayer, as part of its \u201cBetter Farm, Better Lives\u201d initiative, will be providing seeds and helping with market access and that has to be good news. Perhaps some of the other global players could follow their lead?<\/p>\n

A \u201cTheory of Soil\u201d is being developed by scientists at Rothamsted Research where the importance of carbon in creating a good soil structure has been identified and the damage done to carbon content by common farming practice demonstrated.<\/p>\n

Syngenta Group, formed out of Syngenta AG, ADAMA and Sinochem, has announced its new structure and is now a company of 48,000 employees in over 100 countries. ADAMA \u2013 or is that Syngenta Group? \u2013 has launched a new ferric phosphate slug pellet in the UK aiming to fill the gap created by the withdrawal of metaldehyde.<\/p>\n

Looking at new technology in pest control, our Technical Consultant Dr Partho Dhang considers the use of smoke as a delivery system for dispersal of disinfectants to reduce the surface transmission of Covid-19. Dr Zia Siddiqi, another IPC team member, looks at remote sensing systems and how they can be both help and hindrance. The world of robotics enters the world of slug control with two members of a family of robots \u2013 Tom and Dick \u2013 out to identify and kill the pest in the field.<\/p>\n

Fully automated drone scouting is also on the cards; just programme in the route and let the drone go \u2013 no flying skill required – which makes field monitoring a simple task requiring a comfy chair and a landing spot for the drone after it has done all the work. The technology also comes out on top in Wageningen University and Research\u2019s second \u201cAutonomous Greenhouse\u201d challenge, with the winning team using Artificial Intelligence to outperform the team of experienced growers.<\/p>\n

Carbon as a subject is back again with a new tool from SAC Consulting adding soil sequestration to its model developed to allow farmers to determine how changes to management practices can contribute to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. One day farm subsidies may be focused on carbon sequestration and not on production.<\/p>\n

With hedgehogs under threat in the UK it\u2019s hard to think of them as an invasive pest but in New Zealand that is just what they have become. Research is looking at using smell to put both hedgehogs and ferrets off the scent of the indigenous bird population which is under threat from these invaders.<\/p>\n

Locusts may be biblical, but they are also with us today and on a scale that has been magnified by climate change, war, and pandemic. The whole story can read like an apocalypse but Professor Graham Matthews points out that we have the technology to control the pest and new technologies such as the fungal treatment Green Muscle can work if used early enough. Nonetheless the FAO assessment of the current situation is sober reading.<\/p>\n

Dr Clare Simpson introduces the concept of PUSH-PULL pest management in fruit crops. Pushing pests away, pulling in beneficial insects and pulling the pests onto traps. She claims the technology can significantly reduce reliance on pesticides and forms an important part of an IPM programme.<\/p>\n

Finally, upland farmers are told by Dr Terry Mabbett, another member of our Editorial panel, not to fear foliar disease as he looks at how foliar feeds can keep fungal and bacterial pests at bay.<\/p>\n

Chris Endacott<\/strong><\/em>, Editor International Pest Control magazine
\nEmail Chris on editor@international-pest-control.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Contents International Pest Control July\/August 2020
\nVolume 62, Number 4.<\/h3>\n

\"\"INTERNATIONAL NEWS<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n