Research show tomato-potato psyllid can survive harshest Winter conditions

New research conducted in the major potato growing regions of the United States, has found that the Tomato-potato psyllid (TPP) – a highly destructive pest affecting potato crops – can survive even the harshest of winter conditions.  

“Despite it being an extremely cold winter in some of the key potato regions of the United States earlier this year, researchers there identified living psyllids in these areas, proving just how resilient this highly destructive pest can be,” said AUSVEG Spokesperson, Luke Raggatt. 

“These findings from the US reaffirm how critical the research and development (R&D) work that is being conducted on the TPP within the Australian potato industry continues to be for growers and processors alike,” said Mr Raggatt.  

Amongst Australian research on the TPP is a project currently being conducted by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA), which is monitoring the distribution and prevalence of native psyllid populations in key potato growing areas across Eastern Australia using sticky traps. The use of the traps aims to provide the industry with an effective early warning system for incursions of the TPP, which is not currently found in Australia. 

“It is critical that the Australian potato industry remains vigilant to ensure that it can swiftly and effectively identify a potential outbreak of the Tomato-potato psyllid,” said Mr Raggatt.  

“While Australia is currently free from the psyllid, there is a real possibility of the pest entering our shores through a number of different means, including the transit of plant materials arriving from affected countries such as the US or New Zealand,” said Mr Raggatt.  

R&D activities in Australia conducted in this area have included an investigation into the role of psyllids as vectors of disease; raising the awareness of Zebra Chip disease within the industry; developing rapid diagnostic tools for the detection of pathogens associated with Zebra Chip; and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies that would help to control the psyllid.   

“In the last few years, the Australian potato industry has invested heavily in a range of R&D projects in an attempt to ensure that potato growers and processors are in a position to deal with this devastating pest and its associated disease, should it arrive here in the future,” said Mr Raggatt.  

“Research findings from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, have all re-enforced how much there is still to learn about the behaviour of the TPP and the spread of the destructive disease that it harbours,” said Mr Raggatt.   

The US research was conducted by the Idaho, Washington State and Oregon Potato Commissions.

For more information:
Luke Raggatt
AUSVEG
Tel: +61 (03) 9822 0388
Mob: +61 0403 827 822
luke.raggatt@ausveg.com.au

Publication date: 4/26/2013

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Farmers Battle Armyworms in China

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/726757.shtml

Farmers battle army worms

Global Times | 2012-8-13 23:50:03 By Yin Yeping

Oriental army worms have been causing damage to crop land in rural areas around Beijing after the recent heavy rainstorms. Farmers are attempting to combat the pests. Photo: chinamaize.com.cn.

Over 400 square kilometers of agricultural land in the capital has been decimated by a plague of oriental army worms, Beijing Plant Protection Unit said Monday.

It is likely that the high numbers of the pest, which targets crop land en masse, and then moves on to the next field like an army battalion, have been exacerbated by the recent heavy rainfall the capital has seen, said an agricultural expert.

But some local authorities Monday downplayed the extent of the damage, claiming the destruction wrought by the worms, which despite the name are actually moth caterpillars, has been exaggerated.

Meanwhile, the neighboring  provinces of Hebei and Liaoning and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have all witnessed the same invasion of army worms, the Beijing News reported.

Sun Pinglan, who lives in Xilihe village in Daxing district, has seen the full extent of the damage the army worm can do to crops.  Although the caterpillars were spotted in previous years, this is by far the worst infestation she has seen, said Sun. “Around half of my 9,333 square meters of corn crop has been damaged by the army worms,” she said.

“I might be looking at a loss of 6,000 yuan [$943.2], which is more than half of our total annual revenue,” she said, “this is not enough to even cover the seed costs.”

Wang Zhenying, director of the Agricultural Insect Research Office of the Plant Protection Department of the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that oriental army worms are distributed throughout Asia. Historically, the caterpillars have long been recognized as a lant pest in China, he said. “They are migrants that settle in southwestern China during winter and fly to northern China for summer as a moth,” he said.

“The huge numbers [of them] this year is partially to do with the recent stormy weather, which nourished the grasses on which the moths lay their eggs,” he said.

A media officer, surnamed Yu, from Daxing district government told the Global Times that everything is now under control.

“This army worm damage is just like that from the unexpected rainstorm,” he said.

“But the Beijing government has worked on this and now the situation is no longer severe,” said Yu.

A female employee from Beijing Plant Protection Unit confirmed that the government has taken action to try to halt the crop damage, which has so far affected 67 villages and townships in the capital region.  “We discovered the oriental army worms were spreading early last week, and we quickly reported it to the Ministry of Agriculture,” she said.

“Meanwhile, we have dispatched the necessary items like pesticide to some areas to kill them,” she said.

Yet she also alleged that since the worms have reached maturity,  it is now impossible to stop them.

“It means they are more pesticide resistant and will cause more damage to corn crops,” she noted.

“We were just informed by the officials via loudspeaker several days ago that we need to pay more attention to these army worms and use pesticide to tackle them,” she said.

Apart from Daxing, Tongzhou and Pinggu districts are also affected by oriental army worms, said Wang. “Why do you still care about this when everyone is paying attention to the flood and rains?” he asked the reporter.

Wang said it is necessary to take effective precautions at least two weeks before the caterpillars become mature and so more destructive. “It normally takes about nine days for the baby caterpillar to become mature,” he said.

“Given the intensive planting of corn in the rural areas of Beijing, the work on controlling the pests is going to be difficult now,” Wang noted.

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Winter was mild — and these pests loved it

By LARISSA MUKERN
Sunday News Correspondent

An adult hemlock woolly adelgid is seen in this photo. (USDA photo)

WOLFEBORO — The dreaded hemlock woolly adelgid, a tiny insect that can damage or kill hemlock trees, has been found in approximately 30 towns in New Hampshire, from Portsmouth to the Lakes Region.

Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), a pest that was first detected in Virginia in 1951, is believed to have originated in Japan where they caused little damage to trees that have built up resistance. However, untreated infestations in the United States, where they have no natural enemies except for cold winters, the pest can damage or kill both the eastern Canadian hemlock and Carolina hemlock trees, according to U.S. Forest Service data.

Kirk Titus of Bartlett Tree Experts in Wolfeboro first discovered HWA on a landscaping tree brought onto a lot on Wolfeboro Neck about 10 years ago. Upon further inspection, he found four or five more trees. State experts confirmed the trees were infested. The trees were cut down and burned on site.

More recently, Bartlett Tree Experts arborist Lucas Hubbard discovered another infestation a few weeks ago on a nearby lot. Titus said that infestations are treatable, if detected early enough. Left untreated, however, the insects are devastating to hemlocks.

“It can kill trees. It’s a very bad pest,” he said in a recent interview, “but it’s fairly easily controlled. Left untreated, HWA infested trees die within a few years.

Infestations have been detected in Rochester, Alton Bay, Farmington, Tuftonboro Neck and Wolfeboro Neck.

“The good news is that those populations of trees are healthy,” said forest entomologist Kyle Lombard, who is with the New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands.

Lombard said HWA was first detected in Portsmouth in 2000.

“For a while, our winter temperatures were holding back the infestations,” he said, adding that the insects don’t usually survive cold winters. On the other hand, they seem to be adapting to colder temperatures.

“With insects, climate change is a slow process compared to insect evolution, so insects adapt a lot quicker. About 20 percent of insects lived through the winter and are nowmuch more cold-hearty. The next generation will be even more cold-hearty. That process is happening.”

Last winter’s mild temperatures fostered the pest’s survival.

In a “normal” winter, Lombard said, he expects a 75 to 90 percent mortality rate for HWA infestation.

“It will balloon this year. Last winter, we had 20 percent mortality, so 80 percent made it through,” he said.

Lombard said the adelgid’s are tiny, “the size of a grain of pepper.” What people usually see infesting branches are the white, cottonball-like fluff the insects create at the base of the hemlock needles.

Lombard said the pests could have been brought in on tree nursery stock from down south, and carried on the talons of birds.

“Birds are, by far, the biggest vectors,” he said. “We have roughly 30 towns with infestations in southern New Hampshire.

“Only two of those sites have trees that are close to death. The rest have been treated or are on such good soils they’ll survive,” he said.
Lombard advice to homeowners is to keep birdfeeders away from hemlock trees to help prevent infestations; those that choose hemlock trees in their landscape plans should also consider if the lot had high quality soils and an appropriate planting site to keep the trees healthy.

Treatments include non-pesticide approaches, such as a foliage spray made from horticultural oil and soap that can be injected into the trees and/or soils and absorbed into the trunk.

Titus of Bartlett Tree Experts said the company, a national company with extensive experience treating infested hemlock trees, has a 300-acre research facility in North Carolina.

- – - – - – - -

Larissa Mulkern may be reached at LMulkern@newstote.com.

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Alien species a growing menace: experts

Increasing trade blamed as pests destroy crops

Alien species of plants and animals will become an increasing menace over the next decade due to the rapid development of the world economy and a lack of awareness of proper prevention measures, experts have warned.

A greater number and variety of invasive species may be accidentally introduced into China with the rapid growth of world trade, tourism and transportation, said Wan Fanghao, director of the department of invasive biology at the institute of plant protection under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

This will threaten agriculture and even human health, Wan said.

Imported agricultural products, packing boxes and containers can easily act as alien carriers, he told China Daily.

An invasion of alien species can cause untold damage if adequate measures to tackle it are not taken, he added.

China, one of the countries most affected, has confirmed more than 520 varieties of alien species, including 268 plants, 198 animals, and microorganisms, Wan said, citing statistics by the academy.

Annual economic losses in China caused by the presence of just 13 alien species, including whitefly, leaf miner and rice-water weevil, exceed 57 billion yuan ($9 billion), academy figures showed.

Border quarantine officers registered more than 320,000 detections of 3,400 harmful species at entry ports in the first nine months of last year, according to figures from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Insects account for about half of the harmful species detected.

Other harmful species include weeds, roundworms, fungi, bacteria and viruses, according to Li Yuanping, a spokesman for the administration.

On Tuesday, the administration ordered stricter inspections on fruit imports from the Philippines after harmful organisms were found in several shipments.

It said insects and bacteria had been found in pineapples, bananas and other fruits imported from the Philippines in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Shandong.

Some invasive species, that could have been tackled or eliminated by strict prevention and control measures, now prevail across the country, experts said.

Political advisers signed a petition in January asking Yunnan provincial government to clean up 360,000 tons of water hyacinth floating on the Dianchi Lake, the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly reported.

The water plant is about to get “out of control”, it said.

The aquatic plant, which was imported from Venezuela into South China in the 1950s, helped pig farmers overcome a grain shortage because of its rapid growth rate.

But the plant blocks waterways and irrigation channels and hampers efforts to drain water-logged fields.

Water hyacinth has spread to 16 provinces, including Zhejiang, Fujian, Yunnan and Guangdong.

Failure to deal with invasive species is due to insufficient awareness of prevention and control measures, Wan said.

He cited red-eared sliders, a semi-aquatic turtle, as another example of an invasive species originally imported from the United States in the 1980s, where they are popular as pets.

An online retail trader told China Daily that he sold almost 200 red-eared sliders a month for 20 yuan per pair.

“Consumers always purchase them as pets or to release them to the wild. They hope this will bring good luck,” he said.

Mei Xurong, head of environment and sustainable development in agriculture at the academy, said in February that the authorities should exercise extreme caution when dealing with species from other countries as the risks they pose are not fully understood.

A law clearly targeting invasive species is urgently needed in China, Wan said.

jinzhu@chinadaily.com.cn

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The Ever Increasing Importance of Plant Pathlogy

http://www.apsnet.org/publications/webcasts/Webcasts/ADrenth/player.html

Subject: The role of plant pathology in feeding the world.

 Presented by  Andre Drenth, Tree Pathology Centre, The University of Queensland at a plenary session of the APS Meeting.

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CABI Blogs

Want to hear what CABI’s experts have to say about important issues in the fields of agriculture and environment? Want to join the debate? Our CABI blogs keep you informed about trends and topics in these important fields.

We have three active blogs at present: the Plantwise blog, the CABI invasives blog, and the Handpicked blog each of which is managed by a team of CABI experts from around the world, giving an international perspective on issues of global importance, such as food security and biodiversity protection. There is also The Biofuels Information Exchange which provides a space to discuss this important, topical subject.

The Plantwise blogPlant health is vital for food security. Join the discussions and help farmers around the globe lose less and feed more.Go to the Plantwise blog >>
The CABI invasives blogThe CABI invasives blog is an opportunity for scientists to highlight their research and debate topical issues in the field of invasive species.Go to the CABI invasives blog >>
Hand picked… and carefully sortedHand picked… and carefully sorted is the the place where the content specialists who put together CAB Abstracts and Global Health, (and many other research tools from CABI) highlight some of the vast amount of research information that goes into the products that we make.Go to the Handpicked blog

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Kudzu bugs threaten soybean crops

Kudzu — the “plant that ate the South” — has finally met a pest that’s just as voracious. Trouble is, the so-called “kudzu bug” is also fond of another East Asian transplant that we happen to like, and that is big money for American farmers: soybeans. (AP)

http://news.yahoo.com/;_ylt=An1ZmSzfkywUupq2kpK7NO.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTBucTM3cTFmBHNlYwNVSCBCcmFuZCBJZGVudGlmaWVy;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0Njh         tBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

Kudzu bug (shown to the right in a photo by Phillip Roberts, University of Georgia) has recently been confirmed on kudzu from several North Carolina counties where it was not previously found. In addition, it has been reported on a legume from the North Carolina Arboretum, although this has not been confirmed. Soybean is the main agronomic host for this insect, but it will feed on many other legumes.  This insect (aka bean plataspid, Megacopta cribraria Fabricus) was found on flowering volunteer soybean plants on June 10 in Union County by a Wingate University researcher, Erika Scocco, collecting kudzu bug for a molecular study. This is the first confirmed sighting of this insect on soybean in our state.

 In North Carolina, the pattern of spread is mirroring that of South Carolina in 2010. This insect feeds on the stems and leaves, and may come into our soybean fields earlier, rather than later, during the season.

 So far, kudzu bug has been relatively easy to kill with insecticides (except with neonicotinoids), but will often reinvade. A preliminary economic threshold, based on Georgia data, is one bug per sweep with large nymphs present, or three bugs per plant with large nymphs present.

 

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‘Super wheat’ resists devastating rust

Published in SciDev Net

by Naomi Antony

 17 June 2011 | EN

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/-super-wheat-resists-devastating-rust.html

Stem rust can destroy wheat crops

Flickr/CIMMYT

‘Super varieties’ of wheat resistant to the deadly stem rust fungus Ug99 could replace wheat in affected areas in as little as two years — if farmers can be persuaded to adopt them, according to a wheat rust expert.

First discovered in Uganda some 13 years ago, Ug99 is increasingly virulent. It is spreading throughout East and Southern Africa, and spores have also reached as far afield as Iran and Yemen. Wheat breeders had been working on promising resistant varieties in Njoro, Kenya, in the hopes that one of them could combat the fungus.

Now they have bred new varieties with good resistance and with up to 15 per cent better yields than today’s varieties, said Ronnie Coffman, head of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project at Cornell University, United States.

Stem rust, also known as black rust, is even more damaging than stripe (or yellow) rust which has wiped out about 40 per cent of harvests in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The new varieties, developed by wheat breeding expert Ravi Singh and colleagues at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, are resistant to both rusts. They were unveiled at the 2011 Borlaug Global Rust Initiative’s Technical Workshop in Minneapolis, United States, this week (13–16 June).

The varieties were developed by combining several plant resistance genes, which individually give low levels of resistance but when found together in the same plant make it more difficult for the Ug99 pathogen to unravel their combined defences, providing better resistance.

“We’re trying to raise awareness of these materials and convince farmers that they should adopt them before [wheat rust] grows endemic — especially in countries such as Ethiopia,” said Coffman.

Coffman said that the two most critical countries to tackle are Ethiopia and Yemen. However, as Yemen’s political unrest has impeded anti-wheat rust efforts — material recently sent to the country by CIMMYT perished in customs — breeders are initially focusing their efforts on Ethiopia.

“We believe that farmers in Ethiopia will accept the new varieties,” he said. “There is a major outbreak of yellow rust (stripe rust) there. It is not nearly as devastating as stem rust, but it’s significant and farmers want something resistant to it.

“These new varieties are resistant to both rusts so we’re hopeful that the incidence of yellow rust will cause them to accept the new varieties. Unless farmers have an incentive that they can see, they don’t tend to accept new varieties.”

He said that if the incentive works, the whole of Ethiopia could be growing resistant strains in just two years — and this same timetable could apply to the entire East African region. “But it’s a big if,” he added.

Singh said: “We need to see national governments making the investments in seed systems development, including seed production and distribution. In many areas there will need to be support and leadership from wealthy countries and international institutions to carry these innovations into farmers’ fields.”

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Papaya Mealybug on the Move: Now in Pakistan

The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus has been on the move since it was found in Mexico in the 1955 but described in 1992. It has spread to the Caribbean, Florida, and South America, in the 1990s; Pacific in the early 2000; and it was found in Indonesia and Sri Lanka (2007), India (2008), Bangladesh (2009), Ghana and Benin (2009), Re Union Island (2010), Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines (2010). In a recent visit to Lahore, Pakistan, Mr. Reiz Mahmood and Mr. G.S. Solangi of CABI South Asia station, Rawalpindi, Pakistan informed me that the papaya mealybug has established in Karachi area of Sindh province in Pakistan. Both Sri Lanka and India have introduced the parasitoids Acerophagus papayae, Anagyrus loecki, and Pseudleptomastix mexicana for control of papaya mealybug. The parasitoid Acerophagus papayae has established fortuitously in some countries in Southeast Asia. It is possible that the parasitoids introduced in India may spread to Pakistan. In case  that does not happen, it would be advisable for the Government of Pakistan to consider introduction of the parasitoids for control of the papaya mealybug.

R. Muniappan
Program Director, IPM CRSP
Virginia Tech
Email: rmuni@vt.edu

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Pestnet (http://www.pestnet.org): Free on-line Crop Protection and Quarantine Advisory Service

by

Grahame Jackson, Australia 

 

Pestnet (http://www.pestnet.org) is a free on-line crop protection and quarantine advisory service with more than 1000 members. Run entirely by volunteers, it was first established in 1999 for the Pacific. In 2001 it expanded to south Asia, and in 2003 helped set up CariPestnet for the Carribean. It is now open to anyone worldwide to join. Today, PestNet members come from more than 80 countries.

PestNet was established to help overcome the problems experienced by crop protection specialists, extension workers and farmers in remote locations or where agricultural services are poorly established. Pestnet addresses the constraints that are associated with sustaining agriculture and forestry-based livelihoods, particularly when pests and diseases abound and there is no advice readily available. Without fast advice, crops may be lost, or worse still, invasive organisms may become firmly established so that eradication is no longer an option.

Using the Yahoo! Group pestnet@yahoogroups.com, PestNet responds to questions on pathogens and insect pests of plants, and weeds. It provides identifications on-line, and gives out pest and incursion alerts, plant protection news and contents of journals as they become available. Since its inception, crop protection specialists and practitioners have posted more than 7500 messages, with currently up to 100 messages being posted per month.

Messages posted to PestNet are first screened by one of its five moderators (located in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Thailand and Uganda) to ascertain the relevance of the content. Queries – often accompanied by an image of the problem – typically receive several answers within 24 hours; hence the service is a very fast means of providing information to remote places which by ‘normal’ means would take days if not weeks.

More recently, PestNet realized that it had accumulated a wealth of information, which it needed to safeguard and make available to a wider audience. Although the messages are archived on Yahoo!Groups, people have to join both PestNet and Yahoo, and then they have to search individual emails to get at the information. To make life easier, PestNet has gone through the archives, summarized the discussions and put these on the PestNet website for anyone to see (http://www.pestnet.org/Summaries/tabid/1100/Default.aspx). Periodically, the summaries are updated.

Over the years, PestNet has been supported by a number of agencies, and it is pleasing to record these in appreciation for their help. The Australian Government Overseas Aid Program (AusAID) provided support through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for leaflets, posters and the website; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) gave funds to buy cameras and for PestNet to visit Pacific island countries to encourage people to join; and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation ACP-EU (CTA) assisted with the establishment of CariPestNet, as well as summarising the archive of messages.

Finally, if you would like to help out, and join PestNet, please do so. We want to expand, and that means having more experts. All you have to do is send an email to pestnet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, saying who you are, what you do and the name of your organization. Hope to see you on-line!

Grahame Jackson
24 Alt street
Queens Park
NSW 2022
Australia

Phone: 612 9387 8030
Fax: 612 9387 8004
Mobile: 0412 994 206

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