Fall armyworm research, development and extension for horticulture

Watch video: Cross-industry collaboration key for Fall armyworm management

Growers across the country have been struggling to deal with a resurgence of Fall armyworm this year, with numbers of the exotic pest bouncing to their highest levels since it was first detected in Australia in 2020. Initially a problem in northern growing regions, Fall armyworm has now been detected in all states and territories except South Australia.

National Fall Armyworm Symposium

The National Fall Armyworm Research, Development, and Extension (RD&E) Symposium was held at the Eco Sciences Precinct in Brisbane on 17 and 18 April 2024. This event was an important platform for bringing together stakeholders from industry, research, government, and funding bodies to share lessons, research updates, and sustainable solutions for managing FAW infestations.

Did you know? Another egg parasitoid for fall armyworm is present in Australia.

An egg parasitoid of fall armyworm has been re-discovered in Australia. The Telenomus remus (Nixon, 1937) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) has been found attacking eggs of fall armyworm in the Northern Territory and Queensland. Overseas, T. remus has gained interest and deemed to be one of the important egg parasitoids for fall armyworm. It is currently used in pest management programmes in South America and Africa (Kenis et al., 2019).

Resistance surveillance for sustainable management of fall armyworm via genomic approaches

With this year’s infestations being the most severe to date, the urgency for fall armyworm insecticide efficacy and resistance management is paramount. This critical issue demands immediate attention across all industries and regions. Our team in the NSW DPI Insecticide Resistance and Genomics laboratory undertook genetic surveillance for insecticide resistance genes.

FARM WALK Explores Pupae Busting Demonstration Sites at Bowen Research Facility

Agronomists from the Bowen region met at the Bowen Research Facility in April to observe a pupae busting demonstration site targeting fall armyworm (FAW). The site was established to address the question, can we disrupt FAW moth development at the pupal stage to reduce pest populations in crops (a practice commonly known as pupae busting)? This research question was raised by agronomists at the Bowen/Burdekin industry meeting in February.

Guidance for scouting fall armyworm on sweet corn and maize

In the absence of accurate damage or economic thresholds, the following points should be considered when monitoring fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) on sweet corn and maize crops in Australia. 1. Female moths lay eggs in masses, around 50 to 200 eggs in a mass, on all stages of sweet corn and maize. Monitoring needs to begin as soon as the shoots emerge and continue at least every week until harvest. Eggs can be found on the upper and lower leaf surfaces, on stems and husk.

Area wide management of fall armyworm in the Bowen/ Burdekin region

Nineteen agronomists, researchers, VegNET regional development officers and Hort Innovation personnel met in Bowen on 12 February to explore area wide management approaches for fall armyworm in the region. The meeting was delivered by the Hort Innovation funded national fall armyworm extension project in partnership with the Bowen Gumlu Growers Association and the National Vegetable Extension Network.

Opportunities for pupae busting of fall armyworm in sweet corn

Management of fall armyworm in sweet corn is strongly reliant on synthetic insecticides. This targets the larval stages of the pest as they hatch and feed on the crop. Eventually, surviving larvae climb down the plants and burrow into the soil near the base of the plants. While still in the 6th larval stage (caterpillar), they form an oval-shaped cell in the soil at about 2 to 5 cm depth and line it with a thin layer of silk.

Highly virulent fungal isolates identified towards fall armyworm

Macquarie University and CSIRO researchers have been working collaboratively to develop alternative solutions to mitigate damage caused by fall armyworm. We tested 11 fungi from the CSIRO fungal collection and are pleased to say that we have successfully identified two promising isolates of Beauveria sp. Our results show that the two isolates work very effectively against young fall armyworm caterpillars and adult moths. The isolates can kill a large proportion of the caterpillars.

Extension Professionals at the APEN International Conference in Launceston, Tasmania

Over 280 rural and community advisory practitioners, researchers, policymakers and academics participated in the Australasia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN) international conference held in Launceston, Tasmania from Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 November 2023. This year’s conference theme was ‘Looking to the future: the role of extension and education’.

East Gippsland Fall armyworm Industry Learning Group Meeting

In September, twelve growers and agronomists from the horticulture and grains industries, representing the wider Gippsland region from Koo Wee Rup to Orbost, came together with researchers and extension officers from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, AUSVEG, VegNET Gippsland and Agriculture Victoria in Lindenow to learn about Fall Armyworm (FAW).

Bowen field visit to fall armyworm management trials and demonstration sites

Grains and horticulture agronomists and consultants from the Bowen-Burdekin region attended a fall armyworm field day at the DAF Bowen Research Facility on 28 September. DAF entomologists Dr Melina Miles, Dr Siva Subramaniam, Dr John Stanley and Vasanthaverni Sivasubramaniam talked with the group about three FAW trials underway at the facility. The trials are: 1) testing the yield and growth-rate response of sweet corn to FAW defoliation in the vegetative stages .............

Webinar recording available: Fall armyworm preparing for the season

This webinar provided horticulture and broadacre agronomists and growers from Victoria and NSW with information about preparing for fall armyworm this season, including: • What, when and where to look • Seasonality and movement • Options for management Q&A panellists were from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Breeding for fall armyworm resistance in maize: an update from CIMMYT

Staff from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), Agriculture Victoria, Food and Fibre Gippsland, and Bowen Gumlu Growers Association joined Dr. B.M. Prasanna (Maize Program Director at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) & CGIAR Plant Health Initiative Lead) on 19th October 2023 to learn about CIMMYT’s efforts and experiences with fall armyworm management at the global scale, and to build partnerships between CIMMYT and Australian institutions

Pesticides and biological control agents

Recently Hort Innovation funded a project looking at the impact of pesticides on beneficial species of importance in the vegetable industry, and the results are available in IPM-Pesticide guides. The project was a collaboration between IPM Technologies, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI).

Fall armyworm host plant relationships: getting the basics right to inform management

Understanding the relationship between fall armyworm (FAW) and its host plants is fundamental information that informs management strategies for two reasons, i) identifying what crops are at risk of attack and ii) identifying where pest populations are being generated. When FAW was first detected in Australia in early 2020, there was a lot of concern about the long list of plants the pest was about to attack (around 353 species), including many crops.

Participatory Action Learning on fall armyworm in North Queensland

Forty-three growers and agronomists from the horticulture, grain, and cane industries, came together with researchers, service providers, and consultants at the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries facility in Bowen this August for an interactive discussion about sustainable area-wide management of fall armyworm (FAW) in the Bowen-Burdekin region. This was the first industry meeting run by the national FAW extension project and was aimed at developing a shared understanding across commodities

Building networks for sustainable fall armyworm management across Australia, United States, and Nepal

Staff from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and Bowen Gumlu Growers Association came together with international researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the University of Florida and the Agriculture and Forestry University (Nepal) in August to share their experience and knowledge of managing fall armyworm (FAW), and to build networks for future collaboration.

DAF's extension officer for the national fall armyworm project

Our extension officer Dr Ramesh Puri is working on a new national program delivered through Hort Innovation to reduce the impact of fall armyworm on the vegetable industry. Ramesh’s career in agriculture has taken him from Nepal to Japan to Victoria Australia. In early 2022, Ramesh moved to Queensland with his wife and two children and joined our team in Bowen.

Native Queensland fungus: A promising biopesticide for managing fall armyworm

A naturally occurring fungus Metarhizium rileyi, has been found to infect and kill fall armyworm larvae throughout Queensland (Image 1). This fungus can be found in large outbreaks in the wet season in Far North Queensland, where it is thought to be the key natural enemy. For this reason, the fungus is a promising biological control candidate, as it is well adapted to Queensland conditions. We have isolated, cultured and curated a large number M. rileyi fungal strains from across Queensland.

Building networks for sustainable fall armyworm management across the Tasman

A team from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) (Dr Melina Miles, Dr Siva Subramaniam, Dr John Stanley, Vasanthaverni Subramaniam, Dr Heidi Parkes and Dr Ramesh Puri), The Foundation for Arable Research (Ashley Mills and Dr Andrew Pitman) and AgResearch (Dr Scott Hardwick and Dr Craig Phillips) came together to share their experience and knowledge of fall armyworm (FAW) in Australia and New Zealand and to build networks for future collaboration.

CSIRO’s effort on fall armyworm management strategies

Since Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda, FAW) was first detected in Australia in early 2020, a team of researchers at CSIRO and Macquarie University has been working closely with collaborators to develop biological control agents (BCAs) and management strategies to help mitigate FAW damage on Australian agricultural crops.