Not Just Maize: Africa’s Fall Armyworm Crisis Threatens Sorghum, Other Crops, Too
The fall armyworm's impact on maize earns plenty of attention, but it is in fact polyphagous. Sorghum, a key cereal crop in Africa, is also vulnerable to the pest's damage, and researchers are working on biocontrol and other integrated pest management methods in hopes of containing the fall armyworm's impact around the world.
Fighting Nature With Nature: Scientists Mobilize Biological Control Against Devastating Fall Armyworm
Researchers at Virginia Tech's Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management are looking to biological control for the fall armyworm, with plans to deploy native, mass-reared parasitoid wasps in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia in the coming year.
Pennies for Parasitoids: Savings Add Up When Rearing Wasps on Alternate Hosts
The parasitic wasp Telenomus remus can be cheaper to raise on a commercial scale on the eggs of an alternate host, rather than those of the fall armyworm, the pest the wasp naturally parasitizes in the field
Common Corn Pest Presents Major Challenge to Bt Crops
By Andrew Porterfield The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) is a major corn pest in South America, known to devour corn crops from Argentina to the Southeastern United States. Farmers have […]
Bt-resistant Insects not Likely to Be a Problem for Maize Farmers
Dominic Reisig, an entomologist at North Carolina State University, received a phone call in 2013 from a farmer who was having trouble with fall armyworms (Spodoptera frugiperda), an insect pest […]
Insect-resistant Maize Could Increase Yields and Decrease Pesticide Use in Mexico
Este comunicado está disponible en español. Although maize was originally domesticated in Mexico, the country’s average yield per hectare is 38% below the world’s average. In fact, Mexico imports 30% […]