International Pest Control – November/December 2018 – Vol 60, Nr.6

IPCadmin | December 8, 2018

Cover Image: A bumblebee hard at work protecting a strawberry from grey mould (p330).
Picture by Flying Doctors, Biobest.

Crystal ball gazing is the theme for this issue, the last of our 60th year. We haven’t asked our writers to look 60 years into the future – 2078 is just too far ahead although I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t have to listen to anyone telling me what we got wrong!

Professor Graham Matthews is predicting a future where climate change will impact all our lives and those of our pests by favouring the spread of insects to new parts of the world. But while the pest species become more of a problem the range of pesticides will diminish and we will have to use smart technology to stay ahead.

Digital innovation has a key role to play and the information technology developed at CABI features in Cambria Finefold’s view of the future. Earth observation data supplied by the UK’s Space Agency, smartphone apps, information portals, image recognition and more all have a role to play in helping the world’s farmers protect their crops, and their livelihoods.

Even Bayer has been crystal ball gazing – albeit not at our request but as part of its Future of Farming Dialogue. Once again it is technology that is to the fore with digital tools and data analysis as important as having the right pesticide and protecting the health and vitality of the land for the future.

For Brandeburg’s Arthur Dales it is again information technology that will be key to the future of pest control with pest control operatives having direct access to detailed activity data before they even arrive on site.

The future for pest and weed control will encompass precision agriculture where drones, robotics, satellite imaging and remote sensing are the norm – or at least that’s the view of Certis’s Kevin Price who believes that all of this will be with us within a 10 or 15 year time horizon as the industry comes under pressure from all quarters.

Arboviruses: there are times when you read an article and conclude the natural world is just out to get you! While we may like to think we are at the pinnacle of earth’s evolutionary tree a read of Fabio Castelo’s review of the world of Arboviruses will soon make you realise that the smallest of living things can easily challenge that position.

Bee vectoring was new to me – I know, where have I been! – and so we’ve devoted a couple of pages to a full explanation of the technology and its continuing development. I’ve learnt something, and I hope you do too.

Wheat Stem Rust may be a European problem, but its possible resurgence is an interesting example of the conflict between conservation – in this case saving a moth – and the impact the replanting of the moth’s main plant food will have on the spread of rust into wheat crops.

It seems the UK’s woodlands have been under continual attack since the arrival of Dutch Elm disease which wiped out 60 million trees. The new threat is Chalara Ash Dieback which was first found in February 2012 but is now widespread across the country and has also moved on to threaten other genera in the Oleaceae family.

But it’s not all doom, nothing is yet threatening the UK’s Christmas trees which are in good health if the large crop now available for sale is a good measure. We wish our readers a Happy Christmas (if you celebrate it) and look forward to bringing you more issues of International Pest Control in its 61st year – 2019.

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