International Pest Control – March/April 2024 – Vol 66, Nr.2

IPCadmin | April 10, 2024

COVER IMAGE:Larvae of a webbing clothes moth on Axminster carpet in the State Bedroom at Blickling, Norfolk.
Picture by National Trust, Kenny Gray

With all the technology we have available to us it is a tragedy that in 2024 we have a global food crisis with millions of people – many of them farmers – unable to afford a healthy diet. According to IFAD one in three people on the planet do not have access to a healthy diet. How is it that over the decades since the second world war we can have spent so much money, as NGOs, governments and international agencies on “aid” and apparently achieved so little? According to IFAD every $1 invested in resilience saves $10 in emergency aid.

In India Speed Breeding is being encouraged at the National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) in Mohali, with the aim of liberating farmers from the constraints and threats of climate change. Meanwhile the FAO has just published 15 case studies arising from its 2022 request for examples of how biotechnologies had been applied to solve the problems of smallholders in developing countries in the aquaculture, crop, forestry, and livestock sectors.

In the UK the National Trust continues its war on pests in the stately homes in its care. With millions of books and manuscripts, miles of carpets, tapestries and curtains, and thousands of other precious items it must be continually on the lookout for pests.

We conclude our comprehensive coverage of the 2023 BCPC Congress by Robin Blake and Prof Graham Matthews with a full report on the proceedings of day two. Prof Matthews also reports on the 2024 AAB symposium on International Advances in Pesticide Application. Upcoming are the Global Public Health & Food Safety summit as well as Pestworld 2024 – don’t miss them! Also reported on in this issue are the UK’s PestEx and Italy’s Pestmed.

Company news kicks off with AI playing a greater advisory role at Bayer and there’s also news from Koppert, Syngenta, John Deer, ADAMA, Biobest, BASF and Lavie Bio. We conclude with a look at how the power of lightning could be harnessed to make fertiliser without the tonnes of carbon dioxide associated with current processes.

Our special feature is on Sustainable Urban Pest management and we start with a sound review of the need for IPM by Dr Partho Dhang, one of our Editorial team. This is followed by an article on the control of crazy ants and finally a challenge to the ascendancy of IPM by Raja Mahendran who makes a plea for a focus on pest risk management – PRM.

In agriculture we take a look at the US ARS approach to tar spot fungus on corn. Neighbourly partnership may have a role in crop protection – some crop pairings can reduce disease susceptibility by up to 90%. WUR has launched a major project to improve control of plant-parasitic nematodes and on Indian farms flower power is to the fore. dsRNA is about to move into field trials on a real crop to see its impact on aphid control in sugar beet – greenhouse trials have a mortality rate of 70%.

Horticulture in this issue is almost all about tomatoes; the influence of friends and enemies, hiding mites and using genes to improve the plant’s defence mechanism. Meanwhile in peppers the use of gamma irradiation to sterilise the pepper weevil is being investigated.

We conclude with Prof Graham Matthew’s review of Urban Pest Management: An Environmental Perspective (Author Dr Partho Dhang, Published CABI).

As ever we hope you’ll find a lot of interest in this issue. Our next special feature is on Vertebrate Pest Control and contributions are always welcome.

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