 
 Cover image: Medieval native red squirrels might have been responsible for spreading leprosy.
Picture by wirestock, Freepik In this issue – largely put together by our new Deputy Editor – we report on a significant new UK grant for precision breeding to develop more sustainable crops, and funding to better understand disease in rice and to look at novel RNAi fungicides. Conventional pesticides are yet again in the spotlight, this time for affecting soil life and diversity while in the USA Dicamba has been approved for over-the-top application to control super-weeds in cotton and soybean.
Pest of the issue is the carpet beetle, the scourge of anyone whose home is full of natural fibres. Our resident expert Alex Wade explains their lifecycle and how best to control them.
The second part of our coverage of November 2025’s BCPC meeting on the “Shape of Future Crop Production” is to be found in this issue with the morning’s topics covering “Current & Future Strategies”, policy as a driver of Plant Breeding Innovation, Next Generation products: RNAi, secondary metabolites, proteins and peptides. In the afternoon the focus was on PPPs and their usage, and updates on both UK Pesticides Policy and regulation changes in the UK.
Internationally we have the Global Public Health Summit in Hong Kong to look forward to in June and Pestworld 2026 in Texas. More locally the NPTA has joined the UK government Trustmark scheme aimed at giving householders confidence in trades, and BPCA have launched a new careers hub for pest controllers.
Company news is the usual mix of innovation, partnership, acquisition and appointments with Koppert, BASF, Certis Belchim, Bayer, 1env Solutions, Syngentia, Andermatt, and Nichino all making contributions.
Our Special Feature this issue is Control of Vertebrate Pests. If past performance had been anything to go by it would have been all about rodents: instead we have deer pest problems, red squirrels as a vector of disease, bats infecting pigs with a diarrhoea causing bacteria, and remote sensing the population of fossorial water vole – a major pest of pastures and crops. And then we have the use of lynx scent to change deer behaviour in the forests of eastern Germany.
Water is kryptonite, but only if you are a bed bug, as while bugs avoid moisture – even blood – Brazilian mosquitoes can’t get enough of human blood and with their normal habitat, the Atlantic forest, dwindling, we’re in the firing line: not good for yellow fever, dengue, Zika, Mayaro, Sabiá, and chikungunya. Meanwhile in the search for means to control dengue “silent infections” may hold a clue.
Field-evolved resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, is undermining the effectiveness of corn that targets root worms with the combination of Bt and RNA interference. Other topics under Agriculture include a gene that could triple wheat production, genes that control wheat height and grain size, and bats that eat agricultural pests (when they are not spreading porcine diarrhoea!).
In Horticulture we look at the control of the fungal foes of perfect turf grass, the lifecycle of thrips and biostimulant trials in greenhouses. Banana wilt makes another appearance in Forestry and Plantation where we also look at the impact of wildfires on forest soils, the way a fungus can turn the tables on bark beetles, how nitrogen is key to forest regrowth and how almond anthracnose may be suppressed by fungi within the almond trees’ own biome.
The giant Asian mantis is making its way into Europe as the climate becomes more favourable to its lifecycle and the way to cutting European agriculture’s climate emissions by 40% is described by a Norwegian University. Meanwhile, we can look forward to worse droughts even as rainfall increases.
In the next issue, Invasive Pests & Vectors of Disease is the topic for our special feature – all contributions welcome!
Chris Endacott, Editor International Pest Control magazine
editor@international-pest-control.com
Contents International Pest Control March/April 2026
Volume 68, Number 2.
 INTERNATIONAL NEWS
- JIC secures £21.5m for precision breeding research
- €1.25m for research into infection mechanisms in rice
- Pesticides significantly affect soil life and biodiversity
- USDA-funded study tracks RNAi biofungicide impacts
- EPA update on over-the-top dicamba application
 PEST OF THE ISSUE
 ASSOCIATION & SOCIETY NEWS
- BCPC 2025 Congress Report (Day Two)
- Global Public Health & Food Safety Summit, June 4-5
- PestWorld 2026, Grapevine, Texas
- NPTA joins TrustMark as approved Scheme Provider
- BPCA launches new pest careers hub
 COMPANY NEWS
- Limonica Ulti-Mite: new thrips and whitefly control
- BASF | Nunhems to acquire Noble Seeds Pvt Ltd
- Moa Technology and Certis Belchim partnership
- Bayer to launch innovative strawberry variety
- BASF to acquire biological control group AgBiTech
- Koppert and Certhon high-tech moth breeding facility
- New managing director at 1env Solutions Ltd
- SAP and Syngenta Partner for AI in AgriculturAndermatt awarded grant to fight fall armyworm in Kenya
- Nichino Europe secures exclusive rights for Vitro
- Syngenta to launch X-Terra® hybrid wheat
 SPECIAL FEATURE: Control of Vertebrate Pests
- Lower deer densities helps restore Highland woodlands
- Feeling sorry for red squirrels? This may change your mind!
- Bat virome study reveals origins of porcine diarrhoea
- Remote sensing model targets water voles in Spain
- Lynx scent reduces deer damage in recovering forests
 PUBLIC HEALTH
- Water is bed bugs’ kryptonite
- Mosquitoes’ thirst for human blood
- High levels of Chagas disease parasite near US-Mexico border
- Silent dengue infections hold clues for vaccine design?
 AGRICULTURE
- Pest resistance threatens corn industry’s newest biotech
- Turning pesticide residues into plant nutrients
- Gene discovered that could triple wheat production
- Pathogen disables plants’ early warning system
- Wheat genes for plant height and grain size identified
- A sticky solution for enhanced pesticide deposition
- Bats eat agricultural pests near natural habitats
 HORTICULTURE & AMENITY
- Protecting turfgrass from fungal foes
- Lifecycle of the short-spined thrips
- Grower-led biostimulant trials across UK glasshouses
- Thrips parvispinus: biology, risks and management
 FORESTRY & PLANTATION
- Ecuador fights bananas fungus with biotechnology
- Wildfires reshape forest soils for decades
- Fungus turns bark beetles’ defences against them
- Nitrogen is key to faster regrowth in deforested areas
- Almond trees may hold the cure for anthracnose
 CLIMATE CHANGE
- Call me invasive: the giant Asian mantis in Europe
- How Europe can cut agriculture CO2 emissions by 40%
- Crop droughts to get worse even as rain increases
 CALENDAR
- Upcoming pest control events
Published in International Pest Control – March/April 2026 issue. The post International Pest Control – March/April 2026 – Vol 68, Nr.2 first appeared on International Pest Control Magazine. 
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