International Pest Control Magazine

Transcription

I N T E R N A T I O N A L
PEST CONTROL
January/February 2012
Volume 54 Number 1
generated at BeQRious.com
Public Health w Agriculture w Horticulture w Amenity w Forestry
 50 years of termite
control failure?
 Slow uptake of
methyl iodide
 The new challenge
of eradicating bed
bugs
 GM moths against
crop pests
 Toxoplasma in
coypu – threat to
health
 Disease
transmission from
mite to family
 Phorid fly threat to
honey bees
 Bt: the lesson not
learned
 Phosphine-resistant
grain insects
eliminated
IPC_JanFeb2012_9.indd 1
www.international-pest-control.com
26/01/2012 11:20:16
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January/February
2012
26/01/2012 11:20:44
INTERNATIONAL
PEST CONTROL
Volume 54 Number 1
Editor: Nigel Binns MBA BSc (Hons) CBiol
[email protected]
ISSN 0020-8256 (Print)
ISSN 1751-6919 (Online)
The official publication for
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D.Sc.
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Bed Bug Foundation
CONTENTS
4
International pest news
20
Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Myocastor coypus (Coypu) in a
protected Italian wetland
Simona Nardoni, Maria C Angelici, Linda Mugnaini and Francesca Mancianti
21
Mother’s pesticide exposure linked to infection in children
22
Bartonella quintana transmission from mite to family with high socio-economic status
Oto Melter, Mardjan Arvand, Jiří Votýpka, and Dagmar Hulínská
24
Global outlooks to bed bug management
Oliver Madge
26
Gene mapping of pyrethroid-resistant bed bugs reveals multiple resistance
27
Adelaide, South Australia – A perfect location for FAOPMA 2012
28
Fifty years of attempted biological control of termites – analysis of a failure
Thomas Chouvenc, Nan-Yao Su and J. Kenneth Grace
30
Bed bug monitoring – from demand assessment to market introduction
Steffen König, Frowein GmbH & Co. KG, Albstadt
34
Insect pheromone based food moth combat systems used in food industry
Dr Nayem Hassan
36
Rob Fryatt interviews… David Gay President of FAOPMA and Stephen Ware
Executive Director of AEPMA
38
Hope for avocado as country sets wasps on fruit flies
41
Rice Institute calls for cuts in pesticide use
42
Phosphine-resistant grain insects eliminated
44
Investment in plant protection with an initial copper deposit
Dr Terry Mabbett
51
Decoding corn defenses for improved pest resistance
52
Research reveals simple storage pesticides
53
Warning on Australian weed resistance
54 Tall fescue helps protect peach trees from nematodes
55 Agency uses new way to find emerald ash borer
56
Site factors and management influence short-term host resistance to spruce
budworm
57
Books
The UK Pesticide Guide 2012
Integrated Pest Management for Collections
58 Index volume 53 – 2011
COVER
Assistant professor Michael Goodisman (Georgia Tech) studies the social dynamics
of yellow jackets, which includes multiple sex partners, extreme cooperation and a
caste system. (Credit: Gary Meek)
26/01/2012 11:20:45
International Pest News
Herbicide detected in air
T
races of glyphosate, the mostused herbicide worldwide, have
been found in water and air samples, according to recent research. This
indicates that people may be exposed to
the substance by inhalation.
“Though glyphosate is the mostly
widely used herbicide in the world,
we know very little about its long
term effects to the environment,” says
Paul Capel, U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) chemist and an author on the
study. “This study is one of the first to
document the consistent occurrence of
this chemical in streams, rain and air
throughout the growing season. This
is crucial information for understanding where management efforts for this
chemical would best be focused.”
In these studies, glyphosate was frequently detected in surface waters, rain
and air in areas where it is heavily used
in the Mississippi River basin. The
consistent occurrence of glyphosate in
streams and air indicates its transport
from its point of use into the broader
environment.
Glyphosate is used in almost all agricultural and urban areas of the United
States. The greatest glyphosate use is
in the Mississippi River basin, where
most applications are for weed control
on genetically-modified corn, soybeans
and cotton. Overall, agricultural use of
glyphosate has increased from less than
11,000 tons in 1992 to more than 88,000
tons in 2007.
Additionally, glyphosate persists in
streams throughout the growing season
in Iowa and Mississippi, but is generally not observed during other times
of the year. The degradation product
of glyphosate, aminomethylphosphonic
acid (AMPA), which has a longer environmental lifetime, was also frequently
detected in streams and rain.
Detailed results of this glyphosate
research are available in “Occurrence
and fate of the herbicide glyphosate
and its degradate aminomethylphosphonic acid in the atmosphere,” published in volume 30 of ‘Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry’ and in
“Fate and transport of glyphosate and
aminomethylphosphonic acid in surface waters of agricultural basins,”
published online in ‘Pest Management
Science’. Copies of the reports are
available from the journals or from
Paul Capel ([email protected]).
Research on the transport of
glyphosate was conducted as part of
the USGS National Water-Quality
Assessment (NAWQA) program. The
NAWQA program provides an understanding of water-quality conditions,
Glyphosate has been detected in surface waters, rain and air the Mississippi River basin.
whether conditions are getting better
or worse over time, and how natural
features and human activities affect
those conditions. Additional information on the NAWQA program can
be found online at http://water.usgs.
gov/nawqa/.
The results follow reports of the
increase of glyphosate-resistant ‘super
weeds,’ and are part of data being
evaluated by the US Environmental
Protection Agency. The registration for
glyphosate is currently under review
by the US regulator. Glyphosate, manufactured and marketed by Monsanto
under the trade name Roundup, is
applied alongside Roundup Ready
soya beans, corn and cotton genetically modified to tolerate the herbicide.
Monsanto maintains that levels of
glyphosate detected are consistent
with earlier reported data, and are well
below the US EPA’s drinking water
standard for the substance.
Coca-Cola says it alerted
FDA about fungicide
Coca-Cola Co. says it has alerted the American Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) after it found
some Brazilian growers had sprayed
their orange trees with a fungicide
that is not approved for use in the
U.S. The alert has been widely
reported in the press.
The FDA had said in mid-January
that an unnamed juice company
detected low levels of the fungicide
in orange juice products after testing
its own and competitors’ products.
Most orange juice products made by
Coke and other companies contain a
blend of juice from different sources
including Brazil.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola did not
say which products it tested contained the fungicide. Its own orange
juice products include Simply
Orange and Minute Maid. The FDA
has said the low levels found of the
fungicide aren’t a safety risk but they
will increase testing to make sure the
contamination isn’t a problem.
26/01/2012 11:20:46
German MEP addresses the CEPA management day in
Brussels
C
hrista Klass, German MEP for the
Mosel Region and Rapporteur
for the Biocide Regulation was
the special guest at the recent CEPA
Management Day in Brussels. Ms
Klass who sits on the key Public Heath,
Environment and Agriculture committees. Although only able to spend a
short time at the meeting between in a
heavy schedule of commitments, her
message was clear that the sustainable
use of Biocides will become even more
important to all European Citizens in
the future as climate change brings new
challenges such as an increase in the need
for vector control. As Rapporteur for the
Biocide Regulation, Ms Klass has been
steering the new regulation, effectively
the conversion of the Biocidal Products
Directive into a European Regulation,
through the European Parliament to a
final vote scheduled for January 2012.
As a result of this vote, the regulation
will come into force in September 2013
right across Europe. This will ensure
that the regulation will be implemented
in all the member states equally and
in a sustainable way, so that Biocides
are only used as necessary. The aim is
to simplify the approval system and to
continue to protect the environment and
consumer alike. Ms Klass highlighted
that within the regulation there was still
no European definition of professional
user and she encouraged the industry
to ensure that all key stakeholders in
both the “Brussels Community” and
the member states were aware of the
positive steps the industry were making
in developing a professional standard
through the CEN process. She highlighted that the timing were perfect as
the regulation would be revised in 2017
which could allow for the incorporation
of a professional use definition and criteria developed by the industry itself .
Responding for the industry Jenny
Hopkins, advocacy strategy manager
for Bayer Environmental Science and
member of the CEFIC Industry Working
Group outlined some of the problems
that the BPD had created and questioned
if the new regulation would provide
anything better. Jenny highlighted the
fact that of the 1000 active ingredients
Christa Klass, special guest at the recent
CEPA Management Day in Brussels
available prior to the implementation
of the BPD, only 400 had been notified and of these only 270 had actually
been defended. Jenny posed the question; “Should this be considered a success or a failure?”. In addition it has now
taken over 9 years for rodenticides- the
first category to achieve Annex I listing
and currently the European Commission
believes it will be 2025 before it completes all Annex I listings. Member states
are not obliged to meet timelines but if
Industry does not meet timelines it is
out. She encouraged the group to send
the message to the industry to tell the
Commission what we are doing and keep
telling them how well we are doing it. It
was important to highlight the activities
in sharing best practice, monitoring and
training and especially to focus on the
“sustainability agenda” as the implementation of the Sustainable Use Directive
had a growing momentum behind it.
Other speakers at the CEPA
Management Day included both
Bertrand Montmoreau, president of the
French Industry Association (CS3D) and
Simon Forrester, executive director of
BPCA who outlined how the success of
their Europe Days, bringing representatives of their national industries to meet
with MEP’s and Commission officials.
In the last edition of International Pest
Control (November/December 2011),
Simon Forrester outlined this in detail.
Finally Rob Fryatt, Chair of the CEN
TC 404 European workgroup updated
the delegates on progress and current
activity. This is detailed elsewhere in
this edition.
Later in the day CEPA held an
Extraordinary GeneralAssembly. Director
General, Roland Higgins updated the
many members and guests on progress
towards the CEPA plan. He made clear
the mission statement of CEPA: “To
act as the voice of the pest management
industry vis-a-vis all relevant stakeholders”. This would encompass developing
awareness for issues affecting the industry, increasing communication with the
members, establishing a focused identity,
use the broad skills of the membership to
add credibility in Brussels and lead the
profession.
Going forward he saw more opportunities for best practice exchange and
more initiatives that smaller organisations can use. CEPA had to step forward
and engage in the need to “Pre-Sell”
the CEPA-CEN standard, Invest in data
collection and facilitate lobby access
to major customer groups. He stated
clearly that all CEPA meetings are open
to all members. Finally he highlighted
the revision of the European Bed Bug
Code of Practice to which CEPA would
assist and engage.
The final aspect of the meeting was
unanimous endorsement of the latest
revision to the CEPA Statutes. This
is the third revision of the statutes in
recent years as CEPA has increased its
membership, influence and relevance.
The latest changes will allow CEPA
to grow further through the admission
of more organisations and companies,
whilst protecting the position of the
founding members, but also to operate
as a modern, progressive, European
focused organisation.
26/01/2012 11:20:49
Research strongly links pesticides to birth defects
S
cientists say environmental pollutants raise the chances of some birth
defects as much as 450 percent.
Based on findings from the University of
Texas at Austin and Peking University,
the researchers suggest autism, may one
day prove to be related to environmental
pollutants, as well as other congenital conditions.
For the current study, researchers investigated birth defects in Northern China
where spina bifida and anencephaly. The
investigators looked at placentas of newborns, finding two pesticides in high concentrations - endosulfan and lindane.
Spina bifida is a congenital neural tube
defect that results lack of fusion of the spinal cord. Anencephaly is also a neural tube
defect that leads to absence of part of the
brain. Most infants born with anencephaly
die at birth.
Endosulfan, an organochlorine pesticide
that is similar to DDT has been used for
years in the United States, but it was just
last year that the FDA ruled to ban it’s use.
Lindane is used to treat lice and scabies
and is also an organochlorine pesticide. It is
also a neurotoxin. It is still used to treat lice
and scabies. Lindane was banned in 2009
for agricultural use.
The researchers also found a strong link
between the spina bifida and anencephaly
and aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which
are released from burning coal and oil.
“Our advanced industrialized societies
have unleashed upon us a lot of pollutants,”
said Richard Finnell, professor of nutritional sciences and director of genomic
research at the Dell Children’s Medical
Center of Central Texas. “We’ve suspected
for a while that some of these pollutants
are related to an increase in birth defects,
but we haven’t always had the evidence to
show it. Here we quite clearly showed that
the concentration of compounds from pesticides and coal-burning are much higher
in the placentas of cases with neural tube
defects than in controls.”
The study was published in August, in
the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences. (www.pnas.org)
Birth defects are especially high in
China, making it easier for researchers to
study the link between pollutants the birth
defects. Finnell also notes China’s birth
records are well tracked.
He added, “It would be much harder to
do this study in the United States, where
neural tube defects are more rare. It’s also
an opportunity to assist the Chinese government in their efforts to lower their birth
defect rates.”
The study found a strong association
between birth defects and common pesticides. They also found PAH’s in placentas
in high concentrations. “This is a region
where they mine and burn a lot of coal,”
said Finnell. “Many people cook with coal
in their homes. The air is often black. You
don’t need to be a rocket scientist to say
that maybe there’s something in there that
isn’t good for babies.”
The authors note pollution is higher in
China than in the U.S., but comparable to
the United States a Century ago. They say
birth defects that are strongly linked to pollutants are not just a Chinese problem. Each
year in the U. S. 3000 pregnancy complications occur from neural tube defects.
The research suggests there may be other
disorder, like autism, that may someday be
linked to environmental pollution.
New focus on residue management
T
he need to improve pesticide
residues management in food
and water continues around
the world. At the end of December
2011, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Minister of Environment and Water
Dr. Rashid Ahmad bin Fahad opened a
laboratory in Sharjah to detect pesticide
residues on food products and agricultural produces.
The laboratory is the second of its
kind in the country. Bin Fahd reiterated that the protection of consumers
from contaminated food and pesticide
residues is a top priority of the Ministry
of Environment and Water and that the
laboratory is equipped with the latest
technology used on the international
level to detect pesticide residues in fruits
and vegetables.
The Minister added that the establishment of the laboratory is part of the
national strategy for the management of
food safety and tighter control of pesticide residues in agricultural products.
In a similar move, researchers have
suggested that Taiwan’s Council of
Agriculture (COA) needs to come up
with better pesticide residue management and testing limits, as certain vegetables such as cucumbers, carrots and
tomatoes tend to have higher residue
levels compared to the average, according to a report published in December by
Control Yuan members Chen Jen-hung
and Yang Mei-ling. (Control Yuan is an
investigatory agency that monitors the
other branches of government).
Chen and Yang investigated vegetables that are often eaten raw or used
in salads because in recent years, the
growing popularity of healthy lifestyles
in Taiwan has encouraged people to
develop healthier diets containing a
lot of vegetables, often consumed raw.
Statistics on pesticide residue in vegetables compiled by Chen and Yang from
2007 to 2011 found that 44 out of 225
sweet pepper samples had the highest
residue levels, accounting for 19.6 percent of the total samples, while out of
1,123 tomato samples 78 (6.9 percent)
failed. For carrots, the failure rate was 5
percent, with 4.4 percent for cucumbers.
Sweet pepper has been among the top 10
vegetables in terms of failing pesticide
residue tests since 2007, with its rankings moving from seventh in 2007 to
number two in 2010, Yang noted.
The two Control Yuan members cited
a lack of management mechanisms as
the main culprit behind the situation.
As of November 2011, the COA had
yet to formulate management plans or
protocols to manage vegetables and fruit
eaten raw and commonly used in salads, and the council had not reassessed
pesticide residue sampling mechanisms
or urged counties and city governments
to collect samples and conduct tests at
vegetable farms, they added. Chen and
Yang also suggested that the Department
of Health (DOH) should amend laws
regarding pesticide residue safety limits
and improve research and development
of test analysis.
26/01/2012 11:20:49
CEPA CEN Project continues to progress
T
he relevance and importance
of the CEPA sponsored, CEN
European Pest Management
Service Standard continues to gather
pace and support. Elsewhere in this
edition of International Pest Control
reports (German MEP Addresses CEPA
Pest Management Day) the comments
of Christa Klass on how important it is
for the industry to develop a professional standard through the accepted and
respected CEN process. Ms Klass, speaking at the recent CEPA Management
Day highlighted the enhanced credibility this would bring to the industry as
the European Commission Sustainable
Use Directive comes into place across
Europe. This message of the importance
of the project for the industry is being
echoed increasingly across Europe at
national level industry meetings regularly supported by CEPA.
Further progress was made in the
development of this CEPA sponsored
project at the recent third meeting of the
European Workgroup (TC404), organised by the Standards Body of Malta.
Over 20 delegates representing their
national standards bodies from Italy,
Germany, Austria, United Kingdom,
The Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary,
Malta and Cyprus attended. In addition
the meeting benefited from the inputs
from the two observer organisations,
Roland Higgins, Director General of
CEPA and Femmie Kraaijeveld representing the EuroGroup for Animals.
In welcoming the delegates,
Rob Fryatt, Chair of the TC404
Workgroup thanked the two workgroups, led by Rainer Gsell (DIN
– Germany) and Peter Withall (BSi –
UK) for the excellent progress which
the meeting endorsed. Rob highlighted the further feedback through the
CEN “LiveLink” process from the
National Mirror Groups from Austria,
Hungary and The Netherlands. The
meeting received additional verbal
feed back from other National Mirror
Groups delergates. These National
Mirror Groups are constituted at a
national level at the discretion of the
individual national standards bodies
across Europe. All are led by and
involve national industry groups and
representation.
TC 404 in action
The Terminology Group led by
Rainer Gsell representing the German
Standards Body (DIN) updated the
meeting on their progress defining
the “Field” which would be covered
by the standard through what the
group call “The Flag”. This outlines
where crop protection, grain storage,
building maintenance and sanitary
disinfection overlap with the field
of pest management and seeks to
establish clear limits of scope of the
standard.
The Competence and Requirements
group co led by Peter Withall from the
UK Standards Body (BSi) and Maurizio
De Magistris from UNI, the Italian
Standards Institute, presented further
developments of their work which is
planned to lead to the first draft of the
standard subsequent to the forth meeting
scheduled for London in April 2012.
Finally the group worked together
to establish some initial thinking on
the twin themes of how and should
the standard be audited and how to
ensure that the standard when complete was of relevance and value to
the 95% of small companies that make
up the European industry. These are
both important aspects relevant to the
Standard that have emerged from various discussions and presentations across
Europe since the last meeting of the TC
404 Workgroup.
For the Pest Management Industry,
the process to establishing a formal
standard through CEN is a totally new
process. The TC 404 Workgroup are
learning together the process and the
protocol required to achieve a standard
which for many industries and processes
across Europe is just an everyday activity. Such standards support the shape and
data contained in your credit card or the
protocols that guide mobile phone networks or travel agency consumer protection procedures. At times, progress
can appear slow, but the industry should
be encouraged that real progress is
being made and even more that the level
of consensus being achieved within the
representative group. This degree of
concensus and speed of progress has
been highlighted by comments from
several the National Standards Bodies
involved.
With further work to progress
through the sub groups and discussion
and feedback to action within National
Mirror Groups, the next meeting set for
April 2012 in London at the offices of
the British Standards Institute (BSi) is
sure to show further progress towards
a standard being in place before then
of 2013.
26/01/2012 11:20:54
Research on parasitic phorid fly, a new threat to honey bees
A
paper published on January 3,
2012 in the authoritative magazine PLoS ONE, co-authored
by NHM entomologist Dr. Brian Brown,
reveals a new threat to honey bees and
perhaps, a partial explanation for the
bees’ well-publicized Colony Collapse
Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their
hive. The threat is the tiny but dangerous phorid fly, which may pose an
emerging threat to beekeeping.
The honey bee Apis mellifera has
experienced recent unexplained die-offs
around the world. Although catastrophic losses of honey bee colonies have
occurred in the past, the magnitude
and speed of recent hive losses appear
(A) Female Apocephalus borealis, (B)
parasitizing honey bee and (C ) resultant death.
unprecedented. So far, the main causal
suspects have been parasitic mites, fungal parasites, viral diseases and interactions amongst them.
In this paper, the authors provide
the first documentation that the phorid
fly Apocephalus borealis, previously
known to only parasitize bumble bees,
also infects and eventually kills honey
bees – by leading them to abandon their
hives at night.
Brown is a world authority on phorid
flies, and blogs about the insects at
http://flyobsession.net. He has received
reports of nighttime bee activity in
Los Angeles. “It seems to be concentrated near the coast,” he said, “which
is where our collecting has also encountered the flies.”
The authors prove that parasitized
honey bees show hive abandonment
behaviour, leaving their hives at night
and dying shortly thereafter. On average, seven days later, up to 13 phorid
larvae emerge from each dead bee and
pupate away from the bee. Using DNA
barcoding, the authors confirmed that
phorids that emerged from honey bees
and bumble bees were the same species.
Understanding details of phorid
infection may shed light on similar
hive abandonment behaviours seen in
CCD. Further, knowledge of this parasite could help prevent its spread into
regions of the world where naïve hosts
may be easily susceptible to attack.
In addition to Brown, the paper’s
authors include Andrew Core, Charles
Runckel, Jonathan Ivers, Christopher
Quock, Travis Siapno, Seraphina
DeNault, Joseph DeRisi, and John
Hafernik from the San Francisco State
University.
For more information, contact
Kristin Friedrich at the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County,
[email protected]
Microdots track wasp habits
N
ew research by scientists at The
Australian National University
will see wasps being tracked
in the same way as stolen cars – using
specialist microdot technology.
The Research School of Biology
researchers published a paper in the
latest edition of Agricultural and Forest
Entomology outlining a successful new
tracking technique, which allows them
to study insects that were previously too
small to track individually.
Lead researcher Michael Whitehead
was working with the parasitoid thynnine wasp to investigate its role in
orchid pollination, but found available
tracking methods impractical.
“Bee tags were previously used
to keep track of small animals, but
they were too big in this case, and
the electronic devices we could find
weren’t going to work,” he said. “So
my brother and I came up with the
idea to test out microdots as a tracking
system.”
Microdots were developed by
the Australian company DataDot
Technology, as a way of tracking stolen
property. The plastic microdots are half
a millimetre in diameter and contain a
personalised code which can be read
under a magnifier.
To test the method, the research team
captured wasps around Black Mountain
in Canberra and attached coded microdots to their backs with liquid paper
or nail polish before releasing them.
After being recaptured, 84 per cent of
tagged wasps retained a legible microdot, proving the method to be effective
and durable.
“When you’re able to individually
mark the wasps you can get data on
population size, movement and longevity,” Mr Whitehead said.
“The method also opens the door to
a whole range of applications beyond
research, ranging from tracing oysters
stolen from oyster farms to tracking
elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns to
combat poaching.”
For more information, go to http://news.
anu.edu.au/?p=11581. AYouTube video of
wasps with tags can be found at: www.
youtube.com/watch?v=DmlMH1Fc6M&feature=youtu.be.
26/01/2012 11:20:57
Causes of Gulf War Illness are complex and vary by
deployment area
G
ulf War Illness (GWI) -- the chronic
health condition that affects about
one in four military veterans of the
1991 Gulf War -- appears to be the result
of several factors, which differed in importance depending upon the locations where
veterans served during the war, according
to a new Baylor University study.
Published online in the journal
Environmental Health Perspectives (at
http://www.physorg.com/) the study investigated links between GWI and veterans’
locations during the war. GWI was most
prevalent in veterans who served in forward areas of Iraq and Kuwait, where it
was most strongly associated with use
of a medication given to 1991 Gulf War
troops to protect them from effects of nerve
agents. For personnel who remained in
support locations, GWI was significantly
associated only with pesticide use during
the war.
“Understanding the causes of GWI has
presented a complex puzzle in the 20
years since the Gulf War,” said Lea Steele,
Ph.D., Baylor University epidemiologist
and lead author of the study. “Many of the
nearly 700,000 U.S. veterans who served
in that war encountered different levels
and combinations of potentially hazardous substances. Our study determined that
wartime exposures and rates of GWI were
not the same for all veterans in all areas.
In earlier studies, the causes of GWI often
seemed indecipherable, when such differences were not taken into account.”
The study found that GWI prevalence
was nearly six times higher in veterans
who served in Iraq or Kuwait, where
all ground battles took place during the
1991 conflict, compared to veterans who
remained on board ship during the war. For
troops in the high-risk areas, GWI prevalence was 3.5 times greater in the subgroup
that used pyridostigmine bromide pills, or
PB, compared to those who did not use
PB, which was issued by the military as a
protective measure in the event of a nerve
gas attack. GWI was also increased for
forward-deployed personnel who reported
being near exploded SCUD missiles or
smoke from the Kuwaiti oil fires, and
pesticide use.
In contrast, for veterans who remained
in support areas, GWI was significantly
A Challenger 1 tank during the Gulf War
increased only in the relatively small subgroup that wore pesticide-treated uniforms
and also used skin pesticides. The study
found no significant link between GWI
and warzone experiences associated with
a high degree of psychological stress, such
as serving in combat and seeing others who
were killed or badly injured.
The study evaluated symptoms, health
conditions and deployment experiences
reported by 304 veterans who served in the
1991 Gulf War, also known as Operation
Desert Storm. That conflict concluded in
February, 1991, after a six-week air campaign and four-day ground war.
Although the war was brief, concerns
have been raised about a variety of chemical exposures associated with Gulf War
deployment. The Baylor study found that
a large proportion of veterans who were
in Iraq and Kuwait used PB pills and were
exposed to the smoke from over 600 burning oil well fires, which darkened Kuwaiti
skies for much of 1991. Investigations
sponsored by the U.S. Department of
Defense also indicate that approximately 100,000 U.S. troops were potentially
exposed to low levels of chemical nerve
agents released during weapons demolition
operations in Iraq after the 1991 cease fire,
and that thousands of troops were likely
overexposed to different types of pesticides, which were commonly misused and
overused during the 1991 Gulf War.
“Our study results strongly suggest that
GWI is the residual effect of exposures
encountered by military personnel who
served in the 1991 Gulf War,” said Steele,
research professor of biomedical studies
in the Institute of Biomedical Studies at
Baylor. “Although the specific biological
mechanisms are not well understood, we
know that a number of the 1991 Gulf War
exposures of concern – PB pills, many of
the pesticides, and low-level nerve agents
– affect the same nerve signaling chemical,
acetylcholine, which is involved in diverse
processes necessary for normal brain and
neurological function.”
Gulf War Illness is the term commonly
used for the complex of symptoms that
affect Gulf War veterans at excess rates and
are not explained by established diagnoses
or routine laboratory tests. Symptoms
of GWI typically include some combination of chronic headache, widespread
pain, memory and concentration difficulties, unexplained fatigue, and digestive and
other abnormalities. Studies indicate that
GWI affects at least 25 percent of veterans
who served in the 1991 Gulf War, and that
few have recovered over time.
“Twenty years after Desert Storm, it
is essential to understand why veterans
became ill,” Steele said, “to better address
the biological mechanisms that underlie
veterans’ symptoms and to prevent this
problem from happening in the future.”
26/01/2012 11:21:01
Farmers slow to adopt methyl iodide in california
Robin Urevich
A
year after environmentalists
lost a regulatory battle to
keep the controversial pesticide methyl iodide off the California
market, they appear to be winning
the ground war against the chemical. Only six California growers
have used methyl iodide - marketed
as MIDAS - to zap soil-borne pests
and weeds before planting crops
like chili peppers, strawberries and
walnut trees.
Methyl iodide manufacturer
Arysta LifeScience Corp. paid for
at least two of the fumigations. The
company shared in the cost of a
third, according to the grower.
By way of comparison, more than
8,500 soil fumigations took place
in California in 2009, the last year
for which data is available from
the state’s Department of Pesticide
Regulation.
“Methyl iodide is a speck on the
horizon,” said Les Wright, Fresno
County deputy agricultural commissioner. Growers and agriculture industry groups clamored for
methyl iodide registration last year
before the Department of Pesticide
Regulation gave the chemical its
final approval.
They pointed to the coming ban
on methyl bromide, one of the most
effective and widely used fumigants
in the state, and argued that without
methyl iodide, California’s billiondollar agriculture industry would
hemorrhage jobs and profits.
Methyl bromide is being phased
out under the Montreal Protocol; it’s
expected to be eliminated altogether
by 2015.
Every year, however, the Montreal
Protocol grants critical-use exemptions for growers who don’t have
alternatives to methyl bromide.
Methyl bromide is costly because of
dwindling supplies, so many growers are also using other chemicals.
But now, some growers say methyl
iodide is too politically risky to use.
“The people who oppose this particular chemical are really loud and
effective,” said Liz Elwood Ponce,
co-owner of Lassen Canyon Nursery
10
in Redding. “If no one said anything,
I think the chemical would be used
more widely. But the objection has
pretty much paralyzed the growers
into no action.”
Methyl iodide use has been so
rare that Arysta put out a press
release
(www.arystalifescience.
com/release/MIDASStatementCentralCoastApplication.pdf) in
November 2011 to announce its first
application on the Central Coast,
which took place only after the
Santa Barbara County agricultural
commissioner dismissed a challenge
to the fumigation permit by environmental law firm Earthjustice.
The controversy over methyl
iodide has simmered for years, but
it erupted in 2010 when Department
of Pesticide Regulation managers
overruled both their own staff scientists and an agency-appointed peer
review panel to approve the chemical for use in California agriculture.
UCLA professor John Froines,
who led the peer review committee,
appeared at a state Assembly hearing in Sacramento last April and
said “science was subverted” in the
state’s decision to approve methyl
iodide.
“I would not want my family, my
friends or anyone else to live or work
or go to school near fields where this
methyl iodide will be used,” Froines
said after detailing the chemical’s
properties that are known to cause
cancer and damage nervous systems.
“You had the best science you could
have had, and the fact that it was
ignored is devastating.”
Earthjustice and California Rural
Legal Assistance have sued the state
Department of Pesticide Regulation
on behalf of environmentalists and
farm workers, arguing that regulators
put politics before safety in approving methyl iodide and demanding
the decision be reversed.
A Fresno County methyl iodide
application last summer drew protests, and last month, Santa Cruz
County supervisors passed a resolution urging Gov. Jerry Brown to
reconsider methyl iodide registra-
tion. In March, the governor told a
Ventura County newspaper that his
administration would take a fresh
look at the decision, but he’s taken
no action since then.
So far, no health and safety issues
related to the six California applications have been reported. But the
political heat is too much for growers, especially those with recognizable labels, Elwood Ponce said.
“Big growers that market in all
these stores can’t take a chance on a
boycott,” she said.
“Methyl iodide is indeed a political hot potato,” said Paul Towers
of Pesticide Action Network North
America, whose group is a plaintiff
in the methyl iodide lawsuit. “But
what made it a political hot potato is
grounded in scientific reality.”
Dennis Lane, a sales manager
for Trical Inc., a Hollister-based
company that markets and applies
fumigants, said he thinks slow sales
are normal for a new product.
“They haven’t seen it on their
farm,” Lane said of California growers.
So far, at least one farmer, Tzexa
Lee of Fresno County’s Cherta
Farms, said his experience with
an Arysta-funded fumigation was
mixed. He lost 20 percent of the
chili peppers he planted and doesn’t
know why. The company took soil
samples, but representatives haven’t
given Lee any answers yet. Still, he
said the chemical was great at weed
killing. “No workers were needed
for weeding,” Lee said.
Grower David Sarabian also lost
some of his pepper crop after a
methyl iodide application in Fresno
County. But he said scorching summer temperatures were to blame, not
the chemical.
In Florida, the company reported to the Environmental Protection
Agency 14 incidents of minor plant
damage in 2008 and 2009. Such
post-fumigation problems are reportedly rare.
In California, the high cost of
methyl iodide might be keeping
some growers away. Lane also noted
26/01/2012 11:21:01
Exposure to organochlorines may
impact male reproduction
that state-mandated half-mile buffer
zones between fields that are fumigated with methyl iodide and homes,
schools, day care centres and other
such sensitive sites also limit its use
because of the proximity of agricultural land to neighbourhoods, especially in coastal areas. “It almost
makes it unusable,” Lane said.
Arysta officials declined to discuss methyl iodide use in California.
The company’s website says MIDAS
has been successfully applied on
more than 17,000 acres in the southeastern U.S.
However, in several of those
states, including Florida, one of the
nation’s biggest agricultural producers, officials say methyl iodide use
has been light. In an e-mail, Dennis
Howard, chief of Florida’s Bureau of
Pesticides, wrote that based on his
discussions with Arysta and growers, “my understanding is that very
few if any applications are occurring
in Florida.”
At North Carolina State University,
plant pathologist and extension
specialist Frank Louws said, “The
Montreal Protocol has seen methyl
iodide as a true replacement (for
methyl bromide), but our growers
have not gravitated that way.”
In California, the fate of methyl
iodide is in the hands of Alameda
County Superior Court Judge
Frank Roesch, who will hear the
Earthjustice case in January.
“I think many people are waiting
to see what is the outcome of this
lawsuit,” said Rick Tomlinson, public policy director for the California
Strawberry Commission. Farmers
live in these communities. They’re
not going to rush in and adopt something when there’s a concern.”
This story is courtesy of
HealthyCal.org, a nonprofit journalism group based in Sacramento.
Robin Urevich is an investigative
reporter for California Watch, a
project of the nonprofit Center for
Investigative Reporting. Find more
at http://californiawatch.org
A
n observational study has indicated that environmental exposure to organochlorine chemicals, including Polychlorinated Biphenyls
(PCBs) and p,p’-DDE (the main metabolite of the insecticide DDT) can affect
male reproduction.
The study, led by Melissa Perry, professor and chair of the Department of
Environmental and Occupational Health
at the GW School of Public Health and
Health Services and adjunct associate
professor at the Harvard School of Public
Health, was published online on Dec. 21,
2011 in the journal Environmental Health
Perspectives.
The researchers studied 192 men who
were part of couples that were sub-fertile,
to see if the men with higher levels of
organochlorines in their blood showed
evidence of increased rates of sperm
abnormalities. They looked for sperm disomy, which occurs when sperm cells have
an abnormal number of chromosomes.
While all men have a certain number of
sperm with such abnormalities, researchers found that men with higher levels of
DDE and PCBs had significantly higher
rates of sperm abnormalities.
“This research adds to the already
existing body of evidence suggesting that
environmental exposure to certain chemicals can affect male fertility and reproduction. We need to further understand the
mechanisms through which these chemicals impact sperm,” said Dr. Perry. “While
we cannot avoid chemicals that already
persist in the environment, it is imperative
that decisions about putting biologically
active chemicals into the environment
need to be made very carefully, because
there can be unanticipated consequences
down the road.”
The researchers used a new sperm
imaging methodology developed by Dr.
Perry and colleagues to detect the chromosomal abnormalities, which allowed
them to study a larger sampling of individuals than previous studies.
Journal Reference:
Megan E. McAuliffe, Paige L. Williams,
Susan A. Korrick, Larisa M. Altshul,
Melissa J. Perry. Environmental Exposure
to Polychlorinated Biphenyls and p,p’-DDE
and Sperm Sex Chromosome Disomy.
Environmental Health Perspectives, 2011;
DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1104017
Insecticides resistance needs watching
T
he latest fungicide performance
information, together with an
update on insecticide resistance
developments were on the agenda during December’s HGCA Agronomists
Conference, held near Daventry in the
UK, reports the Farmers Guardian
(http://www.farmersguardian.com).
Following a season where there has been
what some described as an ‘aphid explosion’, Stephen Foster’s insecticide resistance
update to the conference contained some
good and some not-so-good news.
Among the more encouraging messages
it was confirmed significant resistance to
neonicotinoid, pymetrozine and flonicamid
insecticides has not yet been detected in
Myzus persicae (peach potato aphid) in the
UK, despite resistance to neonicotinoids
being present in Myzus persicae populations
elsewhere in Europe.
“Myzus persicae carrying strong, control-busting, resistance to neonicotinoids are
now present in several European countries.
We need to remain vigilant for these forms
coming into the UK as they may cause control failures,” said Dr Foster.
Less welcome was news that MACEresistant Myzus persicae, resistant to pirimicarb, have remained very common and
widespread in the UK. While Myzus persicae carrying kdr (resistance to pyrethroids)
appear to be on the wane, there is another,
previously unknown pyrethroid resistance
mechanism about.
The kdr mechanism has also now been
found in the grain aphid (Sitobion avenae) with control failures being seen in
Cambridgeshire this summer, following
applications of pyrethroid lambda-cyhalothrin. “We do not yet know how much
resistance it confers and how common or
widespread these kdr aphids are in the
UK,” Dr Foster told the conference, adding
the kdr mutation confers cross-resistance to
other pyrethroid insecticides.
11
26/01/2012 11:21:01
New tool tests for pesticides
A
rapid screening tool developed
by an RMIT University doctoral researcher could enable the
instant detection of pesticide residues in
Australia’s water catchments.
Dr David Beale investigated the development of a portable instrument for detecting the presence of commonly used pesticides in water as part of his PhD research in
RMIT’s School of Applied Sciences.
The method he developed enables the
rapid screening of bulk waters using chemiluminescence – a highly-sensitive technique that allows the detection of minute
quantities of an organic compound.
“With diminishing water reserves and
increasing pesticide use, our waterways
are at growing risk of contamination,” Dr
Beale said.
“Typical pesticide monitoring involves
collecting samples on site then taking them
back to a laboratory for analysis, a process
that can take several days.
“By instantly identifying the presence
of specific pesticide residues, this new
method would enable water utilities to
find out on the spot if a water catchment is
contaminated.
“With future development, I hope the
tool could enable water utilities to monitor
their catchments in-situ and in real time for
a variety of pesticide classes.”
The method developed by Dr Beale as
part of his PhD can give an on-the-spot
indicative reading identifying the presence of triazines, triazinone and selected
organophosphates in water samples, with
confirmation performed New tool tests for
pesticides by traditional analytical techniques in a laboratory.
Sensitive enough to detect minute traces
of pesticide residues under the maximum
levels set by Australian guidelines for safe
drinking water, the method could be easily
incorporated into a portable field instrument, which is the basis of further research
at RMIT.
“I hope my work could enable water
utilities to catch any contamination earlier,
as well as boosting the amount of testing
conducted within our water catchments,”
he said.
A research scientist at the CSIRO, Dr
Beale said his research focus drew on a
long-standing interest in water.
“For as long as I can remember, water
has been an integral part of my life; my
12
father worked as a master mariner, the
family home was close to the ocean and as
a teenager the ocean was my playground,”
he said.
“But it was not until I started university
that I started to develop a greater appreciation of water as a resource and the impact
humans have on its quality.
“In my undergraduate environmental
science degree I was exposed to small
water quality research projects.
“During my honours year, I realised
the enormity of pesticide contamination in
water and my attention shifted to the investigation of pesticide residue in drinking
water – a topic that I continued to research
during my PhD.”
Dr Beale said his doctoral research
had helped him build many skills that had
contributed to his professional development, including the ability to self-motivate,
methodically tackle problems and look for
solutions, and communicate key findings to
research peers and the broader community.
“Undertaking a PhD is like journey
– at the start you find yourself enthusiastic
and optimistic to what lies ahead and as a
new candidate, I started my journey with
open eyes and high hopes to what could be
achieved,” he said.
“As the journey progresses I went
through periods of doubt, anxiety and frustration as what I initially planned wasn’t as
easy as I had envisioned.
“However, through hard work and
determination those challenges were overcome, which made completing my PhD so
rewarding and fulfilling.
“I now reflect back on this period in
my life as one of transition – transitioning from an undergraduate to a research
scientist, with the tools and collaborative
network that can tackle any problem that is
presented to me.”
Details can be found at: http://www.
rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=5n5t14uh58jo1;ST
ATUS=A
Arkema and Certis to distribute
Paladin® soil fumigant
A
rkema and Certis have entered
into an exclusive joint development and distribution
agreement in Europe for Paladin ®,
a new and innovative pre-plant fumigant for modern and sustainable soil
pest control.
Developed by Arkema’s R&D
teams, Paladin ® is a new and effective soil fumigant based on dimethyldisulfide (DMDS), for worldwide
substitution of old fumigants, which
are being gradually withdrawn due to
ozone depletion or regulatory restrictions. DMDS has already been registered as a soil fumigant in the USA
and Israel in 2010, and in Morocco in
2011. Europe is another key target for
registration of Paladin ®.
Under the agreement, Certis will
be Arkema’s exclusive partner for
the development, registration and
distribution of Paladin ®in Europe.
Arkema will initiate the EU approval
process of DMDS by submitting a
regulatory application by the end of
2012.
In the meantime, should Paladin®
be authorized by way of derogation by
national authorities on some European
markets, Certis Europe and Arkema
are ready to supply these specific
needs.
DMDS is produced by Arkema in
its Lacq plant in South of France.
For more information please contact
Nicola de Tommaso, Portfolio manager, on [email protected]
26/01/2012 11:21:03
The hat that went round the world
W
hen Steve Broadbent of
Ensystex Australia discovered
that he had left his hat in the
hotel in Ouro Preto, Brazil after attending
and presenting at the ICUP conference
there last August, he thought that maybe
he had lost his travelling partner for over
25 years. But he had yet to discover just
how collaboration with his industry colleagues and the use of modern technology
would return the hat to him, but only after
the hat had circled the globe.
The hat originally left Australia with
Steve as part of his luggage. His plan was
after the conference to pursue his love of
wildlife and nature on a unique trip to the
Brazilian wetlands known as the Pantanal.
The first leg was to cross the Pacific via
Easter Island to Chile and then onto Sao
Paulo in Brazil. There he met up with
one of International Pest Control’s technical consultants, Rob Fryatt of Xenex
Associates and after a few days of business meetings they moved on through
Belo Horizonte picking up other industry
colleagues as they travelled to arrive at
the ICUP event in Ouro Preto. Steve
was giving a paper at the event on how
their Exterra Termite Baiting System had
eliminated termite colonies preventing
the collapse of critical earthen dams in
Botswana.
At the end of the conference they travelled back to Belo Horizionte ahead of the
flight into the Pantanal. Rob takes up the
story, “There was a knock on my hotel
room door around midnight and Steve
announcing he had left his hat at the hotel
in Ouro Preto. I assured him we would do
our best to get it back, but with 30 years of
experience in Brazil, I thought it unlikely”.
As Steve flew off the next morning, Rob
went into action. He continued “First we
called the hotel, who told us someone was
in the room and maybe they could check
later. I knew this probably would not
happen”. Then he remembered that Dr.
Daniel Bajomi of Babolna Bio was still in
the hotel, but he did not have his mobile
phone number. Rob emailed Daniel’s secretary Maria in Budapest explaining the
situation. A couple of hours later Rob got
a reply to the email confirming that Daniel
had the hat in his possession. A relieved
Steve, out in the midday sun (but without
a hat!) got a text from Rob giving him the
good news.
Next the hat separated from its owner
began the journey that would take it round
the rest of the world. Daniel brought the
hat back to Europe in his luggage and then
sent this by courier to Rob in the UK as
Rob would be seeing Steve in India a few
weeks later at the annual FAOPMA meet-
Steve wearing the hat
ing where Steve was launching Ensystex
India. Rob took the hat out to Goa in his
luggage where the hat and its owner were
reunited like long lost friends. The hat
then completes its circumnavigation in
just a little less than 80 days on the plane
journey back to Australia.
Steve commented on the whole experience “I thought I had seen the last of
a hat that meant a lot to me as we had
already travelled the world together for
many years. I want to thank Rob, Daniel
and Maria for showing just how well the
industry can collaborate together across
the globe. And my hat adds its own personal thanks”.
Rob returns the hat to its owner
13
26/01/2012 11:21:08
Millions of GM moths could be released to combat
crop pests
A
British company has proposed
releasing a GM strain of the
diamondback moth (Plutella
xylostella) that it has developed, hoping to reduce the population of this
serious pest.
Diamondback moths attack cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers and
similar crops. Oxitec is looking to
provide a solution by developing
their RIDL® technology for this
moth. Diamondback moth is the
number one pest of brassica crops
worldwide and a common problem
on UK leafy brassica crops during
spring and summer.
According to Roger White, a grower in Lincolnshire, “Diamondback
moth is particularly troublesome as
the caterpillars cause damage so
quickly. On a Friday evening, my
plants will be clean and healthy, but
can be devastated when I check them
again on Monday morning. I spray
the plants weekly with applied Bt
toxin to get around this, but this can
sometimes act too slowly to prevent
damage before the caterpillars are
killed. If there’s one hole on the
plants, supermarkets won’t buy it.”
One study found that pest caterpillar numbers were still as high
as 11% on some treated cabbage
crops (Collier et al. 2003. BCPC
International Congress: Crop Science
& Technology).
On the subject of pest control
methods available, Roger White
worries that, with many pesticides
withdrawn from European use, “too
few options are available to the
farmer, and one of these days control
will start to fail”. White believes
that not enough is being invested
in novel control methods, which is
symptomatic of a general lack of
concern for the issues facing food
production in the UK.
This is backed up by a report
for the UK National Horticultural
Forum (www.horticulture.org.uk),
which stated: “There is considerable
concern in the [brassica] industry
at the rate at which pesticide active
ingredients are being driven out of
the market. The need for research
into non-pesticide alternatives is
clear… The issue is likely to come
further to the fore as the effects
of climate change become evident,
potentially resulting in more serious
and prolonged pest infestations…”
RIDL insects contain a modification that causes their offspring
to die, but can live and reproduce
normally when the larvae are fed a
diet containing a supplement. RIDL
males are released to mate with wild
With climate change, the diamondback moth problem is only going to increase as time
passes. Photo courtesy scienceimage.csiro.au
14
female pest insects; their progeny
inherit the RIDL gene and do not
survive to adulthood.
Oxitec hope to begin trials in 2012
but faces opposition from groups
who say the untested technology
could threaten wildlife and human
health. Oxitec believe their RIDL
technology would provide a chemical-free and species-specific control
option that would address many of
these concerns. On future prospects,
White also worries that “with climate change, the diamondback moth
problem is only going to increase as
time passes”.
Dr Helen Wallace, the director
of GeneWatch UK, who has sat on
government advisory bodies, told
the British press: “Mass releases of
GM insects into the British countryside would be impossible to recall if
anything went wrong.
Changing one part of an ecosystem can have knock-on effects
on others in ways that are poorly
understood. This could include an
increase in different types of pest.
Wildlife that feeds on insects could
be harmed if there are changes to
their food supply.”
Hadyn Parry, Oxitec’s chief executive, said there was demand from
farmers for the technology and that
using GM insects to kill the pests
that prey on food crops is better
for the environment than chemical
sprays.
The firm, which is supported by
grants from the taxpayer, is developing a number of GM insects that
would be used in Britain and around
the world to protect crops and combat disease in humans. Oxitec has
contacted the Health and Safety
Executive to ask what controls, if
any, should be put in place around
GM moth trials.
A Defra spokesman said that
while its officials and advisers have
discussed Oxitec’s plans, there has
not yet been a formal application for
a trial. Consequently, the department
has not reached a view on whether it
should go ahead.
26/01/2012 11:21:11
james french dist ad jan 2012.indd 1
1/23/2012 4:50:07 PM
15
26/01/2012 11:21:13
EPA grants first approval for nanopesticide – nanosilver
T
he United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has
granted its first approval for a
pesticide based on a nanoscale material.
The product, Swiss-made antimicrobial
nanosilver used in fabrics, was given a
four-year conditional registration.
The EPA announced that it is
moving forward with a four-year
“conditional registration” for HeiQ
Materials’ AGS-20 product, which is
essentially a composite of nanosilver and nanoscale silica. According
to HeiQ’s application—first filed in
2008—AGS-20 will be incorporated
into textiles.
The agency proposed the conditional registration—which comes
with a laundry list of required tests—
in August 2010, and opened a public comment period. Then there was
radio silence, except for an EPA
announcement last summer that it
planned to seek more information
from manufacturers using nanomaterials, potentially including nano-enabled products that got the green light
before the agency sharpened its focus
on ultra-tiny substances.
The EPA considers nanosilver a
pesticide and requires registration via
the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Per
FIFRA registration, EPA required
additional data from the Swiss company on product chemistry, toxicology, exposure, and environmental
impact to confirm an assessment in
order to show that HeiQ AGS-20
will not cause unreasonable adverse
effects on human health or the environment.
Nano-watchers have been waiting
eagerly for the agency’s decision,
wondering whether the move would
signal a larger shift in how nanomaterials, including silver, are monitored
and regulated.
Nanotechnology leverages the
often-unique properties of supersmall particles to create products
with amazing qualities. These materials can make better batteries or
lighter and stronger bike frames, as
well as new medical instruments and
medicines that can save lives. They’re
increasingly common in consumer
16
Nanosilver - tiny particles of silver used to
coat an item or be suspended in it - has
been shown to have pesticidal qualities.
products, from “mineral-based” sunscreens to stain-repellent pants to
boat paints that resist algae growth.
Nanomaterials are believed to hold
great promise for a wide variety of
applications. But shrinking these substances can change their properties,
and scientists are struggling to figure
out whether that shift can make them
dangerous in the process, and how
and why it happens.
The EPA considers nanosilver,
and its larger-sized counterpart, a
pesticide, and evaluates it under
the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide
and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA.
According to that law, pesticides
must be registered before going on
the market.
Environmental groups and other
advocates have warned that nanosilver could be a problem for the environment, by building up in water, soil
and marine life or by disrupting the
natural bacteria that are all around
us. Others have questioned whether the widening use of nanosilver
might create problems with resistance, either in people or in bacteria.
The silver industry maintains that
the metal, which has been used for
centuries to fight germs, is safe in
any size.
In his statement, Centonze said
HeiQ will comply with all the EPA’s
requirements: “It is our constant
effort to produce and communicate
scientific findings to EPA and other
regulators in their efforts to adapt
risk assessment to new policies and
environmental findings.”
Jaydee Hanson, policy director at the International Center for
Technology Assessment, said he was
disappointed that the EPA decided to
move ahead with HeiQ’s application
before completing work on broader
guidelines for nanoscale pesticides.
The ICTA, in concert with other advocacy groups, has petitioned both the
FDA and EPA to start regulating products that contain nanomaterials.
The company should get credit for
going through the registration process, he said, noting that other manufacturers seem to be cloaking their
nanopesticide ingredients in order to
avoid EPA scrutiny.
But the agency should have waited, Hanson said, at least until it gets
the results of the toxicology tests
required under the conditional registration.
“It’s a little bit like, ‘OK, let your
horses out, and maybe we can recall
them afterwards,’‘‘ Hanson said.
There are serious potential environmental problems, if we get every
fabric out there impregnated with
nanosilver,” adding that he expects to
see more companies apply to register
nanosilver pesticides in the wake of
the EPA’s decision.
HeiQ’s application, and the EPA
proposal for the conditional registration, drew a variety of comments
from industry, environmental and
consumer advocates and the public.
Many were negative, and it’s unclear
how—or if—they affected the EPA’s
decision.
“I think it’s going to be when we
see their new regulations before we
know whether they really paid attention to the comments or not,” Hanson
said.
For more information, go to http://
www.innovationsgesellschaft.ch/
Further reading:
Nowack, B., Krug, H., Height, M.
(2011): 120 Years of Nanosilver
History: Implications for Policy
Makers. In: Environmental Science
& Technology 45: 1177-1783
26/01/2012 11:21:14
Changes in Bayer and Sumitomo fungicide supply
B
ayer CropScience announced
that it has divested certain
fungicides to FMC Corp. The
transaction includes Rovral (active
ingredient: iprodione) and Sportak
(active ingredient: prochloraz) brand
families for worldwide agricultural
uses outside Europe. Financial terms
of the transaction were not disclosed.
Bayer CropScience is currently
restructuring its Crop Protection business - by rejuvenating its portfolio
and increasing its focus on key brand
families.
The main brands Rovral and
Sportak are registered in more than 50
countries, and are used in a wide range
of crops, including cereals, canola,
soybean, rice, potatoes, fruits and vegetables. They offer excellent fungicidal performance in terms of disease
control, are well suited to Integrated
Pest Management (IPM) strategies,
and are useful tools in anti-resistance
programs. Bayer is a global enterprise
with core competencies in the fields
of health care, nutrition and high-tech
materials.
Bayer CropScience, a subgroup of
Bayer AG with annual sales of EUR
6.830 bn (2010), is one of the world’s
leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection,
non-agricultural pest control, seeds
and traits. The company offers an
outstanding range of products and
extensive service backup for modern,
Ethaboxam fungicide performs well against
Pythium disease. Courtesy Lane Tredway,
North Carolina State University
sustainable agriculture and for nonagricultural applications.
Bayer CropScience has a global
workforce of 20,700 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This
and further news is available at: www.
bayercropscience.com.
In a similar move, Sumitomo
Chemical C Ltd (SCC) has agreed
with LG Life Sciences Ltd (LGLS) of
South Korea to acquire their ethaboxam fungicide business.
Ethaboxam fungicide is highly
effective on a wide range of troublesome diseases, such as downy mildew,
late blight and Pythium disease, of
many crops including grapes, vegetables, potatoes, corn and other row
crops. The fungicide offers the distinctive advantage of flexibility in
the choice of application methods,
for example, soil, foliar or seed treatment applications. The compound
was developed by LGLS and has been
on the market in various countries
since 2005, mainly for foliar and soil
treatment.
Because of its highly systemic
and preventive activities, ethaboxam
exhibits excellent fungicidal performance also for seed treatment, which
helps reduce both the application
frequency and the application rate
of crop protection products and ultimately promote labour saving in agricultural production. Given a surging
global trend toward more efficient
crop production on a larger farming
scale, demand for increased use of
crop protection products in seed treatment is expanding significantly in
recent years.
Since only a few fungicides are
currently available to control Pythium
disease effectively, SCC expects that
ethaboxam will be one of the highly
preferred seed treatment products
capable of meeting growers’ needs
for higher crop productivity. SCC
positions the seed treatment field
as one of its strategically important
business segments and is working
vigorously to establish a stronger
product portfolio centering on its
current flagship product, clothianidin insecticide. From this perspective, the ethaboxam business acqui-
sition makes SCC’s product portfolio even more attractive to farmers
as it provides a further enhanced
product line of unique crop protection products for seed treatment particularly when used in combination
with existing products.
The SCC group has thus far engaged
in development of ethaboxam under
license from LGLS in certain countries, including the US, mainly for
seed treatment. SCC’s US subsidiary,
Valent US Corp, submitted product
registration applications in US and
Canada in September this year. The
reinforcement of its product lines with
ethaboxam will allow SCC to accelerate its efforts for global development of crop protection products for
seed treatment. Under the agreement
between the two companies, LGLS
will undertake a toll manufacturing of
the product’s technical grade for supply to SCC.
The acquisition of the ethaboxam
business will further solidify SCC’s
business foundation for crop protection products. Expending unabated
efforts such as this undertaking going
forward, SCC, as a total solution
provider, will continue to contribute
to improvement in agriculture productivity as it works to strengthen and
expand the crop protection business
worldwide.
Pesticide presence growing
in Danish drinking water
A new report from the research institute Geus has revealed that a quarter
of water boreholes in Denmark contain residues of one or more pesticides.
The report claims that the occurrence of pesticides in drinking water
is growing despite many pesticides
being banned and others being
restricted over the last 20 years.
24.5% of the boreholes analysed in
2010 contained toxic spray residues,
compared with 19% in 2009.
Ref NP Investor, 12 Dec 2011,
(Website: http://www.npinvestor.dk/)
(in Danish).
17
26/01/2012 11:21:15
Bt: the lesson not learned
Janet Raloff
A
piece by Janet Raloff, writing
for Science News (www.sciencenews.org) describes how
the magazine reported 60-plus years ago
how indiscriminate use of DDT ruined
that chemical’s value. She now observes
that history seems to be repeating itself
with Bt:
The more things change, the more they
stay the same, as a Dec. 29 Associated
Press report on genetically engineered
corn notes. Like déjà vu, this news
story on emerging resistance to Bt toxin
– a fabulously effective and popular
insecticide to protect corn – brings to
mind articles I encountered over the
weekend while flipping through historic
issues of Science News.
More than a half-century ago, our
magazine chronicled, real time, the
emergence of resistance to DDT, the
golden child of pest controllers worldwide. Now much the same thing is happening again with Bt, its contemporary
agricultural counterpart. Will we never
learn?
The new AP story cites rather vague
references to the fact that corn genetically engineered to produce the insecttargeting Bt toxin no longer knocks
out a major scourge – the Western corn
rootworm – as it recently had. These
beetle larvae are developing resistance
to the toxin (named for its initial source,
the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis).
And the worst part: Early evidence of
resistance occurs in secret as the voracious larvae again chomp away at roots
buried beneath a masking layer of soil.
Although the AP report doesn’t cite
research establishing rootworm resistance, it does exist. As I noted back
in early August, Iowa State scientists
published a report in PLoS ONE about
rootworms able to feast on supposedly
protected crops. “This is the first report
of field-evolved resistance to a Bt toxin
by the western corn rootworm and by
any species of Coleoptera [i.e. beetles
and weevils],” Aaron Gassmann and his
colleagues noted. “Insufficient planting
of refuges and [genetic] inheritance of
resistance may have contributed,” they
said.
A few weeks later, Mike Gray of the
University of Illinois reported in the
18
Aug. 26 issue of The Bulletin that he
recently had been called in to “verify
severe corn rootworm pruning on some
Bt hybrids.” The concerned farmer had
relied exclusively on genetically engineered Bt to protect his corn. When
Gray arrived, “[rootworm] adults were
numerous and easy to collect. It was
also easy to find plants with two to three
nodes of roots completely destroyed. A
shovel was not required for removing
the plants from the soil.” This brutal pest lops off anchoring roots, after
which corn stalks fall over like just so
many trunks of felled timber.
Gray advocates tackling rootworms
using “a long-term, integrated approach
that includes multiple tactics, such as
adult suppression programs, use of soil
insecticides at planting, rotation of Bt
hybrids that express different [toxins],
and rotation to nonhost crops.”
In fact, he and other extension agents
warn farmers that they must do this if Bt
corn is to prove reliable into the future.
And there are a range of complements
to Bt that can be employed. (I reported
more than a decade ago on a particularly
innovative one the feds were developing, based on bitter melons.) But
growers often go for expediency over
long-term investments in multi-pronged
and labor intensive crop protection. As
Gray observes, “Many producers have
relied on a single tactic for too many
years, and unfortunate consequences are
beginning to emerge.”
The irony: Bt toxin has been part
of the agricultural arsenal for nearly a
century. Farmers first began employing it – by seeding crops with spores
of the parent bacterium – around
1920, according to a website run by
Raffi Aroian’s lab at the University of
California San Diego. But as sporebased products could wash away or
be degraded by sunlight, biochemists sought a more effective way to
ensure the toxin stayed with plants.
And they found it: incorporation of the
gene responsible for making the toxin
directly into high value crops.
“The first genetically engineered
plant, corn, was registered with the
EPA in 1995,” the Aroian lab notes.
Already, however, concerns about the
invincibility of Bt were emerging in
lab studies (see SN: 9/12/92, p. 166).
And precisely because Bt toxin had
proven such an effective insecticide
for so long, crop-protection specialists
warned that to safeguard Bt’s potency,
growers would have to resist the temptation to overuse it.
That gets back to how we now
appear doomed to repeat that history
we failed to learn. While perusing old
issues of Science News, I encountered
Bt struggles to control Western corn rootworm. Courtesy Perdue University (extension.entm.
purdue.edu).
26/01/2012 11:21:16
Special delivery: nematode-infected
insect cadavers
hosts of stories describing heavy and
apparently indiscriminate use of DDT.
One January 1946 piece observed
that dog shampoos laced with DDT
can eliminate fleas for months. An
August 1947 article described wallpaper manufacturers adding the chemical
to their product so that it would kill
flies on contact. And federal scientists
had begun evaluating DDT’s safety
in the paper used by stores to wrap
groceries.
A 1949 story described the insecticide’s utility as a treatment for rivers: Just two quarts were needed to
deal with fly- and mosquito-infested
regions up to 25 miles downstream.
Our magazine also prophesied that
thanks to DDT (and good sanitation),
families could plan on soon kissing
their flyswatters goodbye: “We are
within sight of a flyless age.”
Five years later, pest control operators were singing a very different tune.
Early claims of DDT resistance, initially shrugged off, eventually were
shown to be prescient hints that a
useful chemical had been overused to
the point of abuse. Once a means to
kill bed bugs and the lice that carried
typhus – a major killer – DDT was
quickly losing its potency. Malaria
mosquitoes were all but laughing at the
insecticide and Agriculture Department
entomologists had bred a line of houseflies that could live in a jar coated with
DDT (SN: 4/28/56, p. 266).
In 1957, Ralph Heal, executive secretary of the National Pest Control
Association, all but conceded defeat.
Along with wild houseflies, the
German cockroach, bed bug, dog flea
and brown tick were all exhibiting
extensive resistance to DDT. Where
this chemical failed to knock out pests,
the newer malathion was proving
effective. But Heal added that scientists already feared insects would soon
develop resistance to these alternatives
as well.
We’d like to think we learn from
our mistakes, but collectively society
can prove pretty stupid. Or selfish. Or
oblivious. In the end, the bottom line is
little changed: We still make way too
many of the same mistakes.
A
custom-made machine for
packaging mealworms infected with beneficial nematodes
could improve the delivery, timing and
use of the worm-like organisms as biological control agents.
The machine is the result of a cooperative research and development
agreement involving U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and
Southeastern Insectaries, Inc., of Perry,
Georgia.
The Heterorhabditis and Steinernema
nematodes being used can infect and kill
a wide array of insect crop pests, including Japanese beetles, vine weevils, root
borers and fungus gnats. About 10
years ago, entomologist David ShapiroIlan and colleagues with USDA’s
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University showed that the nematodes performed best when applied in
the dead bodies of the insect hosts used
to mass-produce them. Pest control is
then achieved by the nematode progeny
that emerge from the insect cadavers.
A technical hurdle that’s kept the
insect-cadaver approach from gaining
widespread commercial acceptance
is the tendency of some commonly
used host insects to rupture or stick
together during storage, transport and
application.
Southeastern Insectaries owner Louis
Tedders came up with a solution, namely, packaging the insects in masking
tape. He also devised a prototype device
to automate the process, which ARS
scientists Juan Morales-Ramos and
Guadalupe Rojas in Stoneville, Miss.,
subsequently refined.
Using off-the-shelf parts, for example, they built a device to mechanically sort mealworms by size, with
the biggest ones chosen for placement
in shallow dishes where nematodes
could infect them. After a few days, a
mechanical arm reaches in and places
the dead, infected mealworms between
strips of masking tape at the rate of one
insect every two seconds. Eventually,
an entire roll is formed, allowing for
easy storage, transport and application
to pest-infested soils.
Shapiro-Ilan’s laboratory tests
of the insect-cadaver taping system
showed no adverse effects on the nematodes’ survival and pest-control ability. Indeed, 15 days after application,
nematodes from the taped cadavers
killed up to 78 percent of small hive
beetles and 91 percent of root weevils
used in the tests.
Entomologists Juan Morales-Ramos and Maria Guadalupe Rojas view first-instar larvae
through a microscope and evaluate the fertility of the mealworms to determine the
effectiveness of diet formulations. Photo by Stephen Ausmus.
19
26/01/2012 11:21:20
focus on public health
Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Myocastor
coypus (Coypu) in a protected Italian wetland
Simona Nardoni, Maria C Angelici, Linda Mugnaini and Francesca Mancianti
T
oxoplasma gondii is the causative agent for a major zoonosis
with cosmopolitan distribution.
Water has been implicated in outbreaks
of toxoplasmosis in recent years.
Coypus (Myocastor coypus), commonly nutria, are large semi-aquatic
invasive rodents, naturalized throughout European countries, included most
wetlands of Central Italy.
The habitat of these animals is both
terrestrial and aquatic, making them a
species highly exposed to the parasite.
Results
The occurrence of the infection was
evaluated by modified agglutination
test (MAT) in 74 adult coypus from
a naturalized population living in
a wetland of Central Italy. Nested
PCR (n-PCR) assay was carried out
on part of them. Positive T. gondii
MAT results were found in 44 animals
(59,4%), 30 males (68,2%) and 14
females (31,8%). Antibody titers were
ranging from 20 to 40960, while 12
on 23 (52,2%) examined animals, 8
males (66,7%) and 4 females (33,3%),
resulted positive to n-PCR.
All n-PCR positive animals were
seropositive, showing antibody titers
ranging from 640 to 40960.
The complete article is available as a
pdf from: www.parasitesandvectors.
com/content/pdf/1756-3305-4-240.pdf
Parasites & Vectors 2011, 4:240
doi:10.1186/1756-3305-4-240
The second asexual phase of the
Toxoplasma gondii life cycle, can take place
a number of warm-blooded animals, including
cats, mice, birds, coypu and humans.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that examined
animals are heavily parasitized by
Toxoplasma. This suggests that coypus
could be a reservoir of parasite, because
they can be eaten both by scavenger
animals and by humans, and that these
animals would play a role in maintaining the cycle of T. gondii.
The Italian study indicates that examined coypu are heavily parasitized by Toxoplasma.
20
26/01/2012 11:21:27
Mother’s pesticide exposure linked to infection in children
A
new report links remnants of a
once-common pesticide to lung
infections and wheezing in kids
exposed to the chemical before birth.
Known as DDE, the compound is a broken-down form of the pesticide DDT
and is found in many places around the
world. It is absorbed into a person’s
body when they eat contaminated food
or breathe contaminated dust.
The study, published in the European
Respiratory Journal, shows babies
exposed to high levels of DDE in the
womb grew up to have higher rates of
pneumonia and bronchitis.
“We found that the risk of infections
and wheeze increased with increasing DDE exposure,” said Martine
Vrijheid, associate professor at the
Centre for Research in Environmental
Epidemiology in Spain.
Vrijheid and her colleagues took
blood samples from a large group of
pregnant women in Spain, measuring
the women’s exposure to three different
pollutants.
Later, when the babies were about
a year old, the researchers asked the
mothers whether their toddlers had had
breathing trouble or lung infections.
About 35 percent of the 1,342 children developed a lung infection within
their first year, the team found, and
the risk rose in tandem with the DDE
levels in the mother’s blood. Vrijheid
estimates that with undetectable or very
low levels of DDE, only 30 percent
of the children would have developed
infections.
The new study is the largest of its
kind, according to the researcher. Past
work has yielded mixed results, and
until now has failed to show a significant association between DDE exposure and lung infections within a child’s
first year of life.
DDT was once widely used to kill
mosquitoes and prevent malaria outbreaks, but its use was called into question in the 1960s and was banned in the
U.S. in 1973. But it and its breakdown
products can last in the environment for
hundreds of years.
People exposed to large amounts of
DDT may experience tremors, seizures,
sweating, headaches and vomiting,
according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. But those
symptoms disappear when the person
is no longer exposed to the pesticide.
Barbara Cohn, the director of
Child Health and Development
Studies at the Public Health Institute
in California, said that DDT and
its remains have been hard to study
because of the time needed for it to
show up in people. “People thought it
was a miracle compound,” said Cohn.
“Nobody really knew what might be
happening.”
DDT is still used in some parts of
the world, because it is considered
the best way to kill malaria-carrying
mosquitoes, said Vrijheid. In 2006, the
World Health Organization sanctioned
an altered technique for using DDT,
which involves spraying the pesticide
on the inside of a building to kill mosquitoes that land on its walls and other
surfaces.
Vrijheid added that it’s hard to avoid
chemicals like DDT and DDE, which
are stored in fat and found in higher
concentrations at the top of the food
chain.
“One way of reducing exposure is
by reducing the consumption of fatty
foods and increasing the consumption
of vegetables and fruits,” she said.
“This does not mean we should stop
eating meat, yogurts or certain types
of fish, but just that we should have (a
balanced) diet.”
Source: bit.ly/vst3yB European
Respiratory Journal, online November
10, 2011.
Ugandan anti-malaria workers support the continued use of DDT. Image courtesy junkscience.com
21
26/01/2012 11:21:30
Bartonella quintana transmission from mite to family
with high socio-economic status
Oto Melter, Mardjan Arvand, Jiří Votýpka, and Dagmar Hulínská *
U
rban trench fever caused by
Bartonella quintana has been
reported in persons who abuse
alcohol and in homeless persons in large
cities worldwide. Symptoms vary from
asymptomatic intermittent bacteremia
to serious complications (1). Pediculus
humanus lice, the known vector of the
infection, are not always identified, which
raises the possibility that other vectors
might also be involved (2). We report
on an outbreak of B. quintana infection
among a young family of high socioeconomic status and their visiting relatives.
The family resides in a regional city
(population 104,000) in northern Czech
Republic in an old, renovated apartment
located on the top floor, just under the
roof. In the summer of 2007, hundreds of
ectoparasitic mites migrated from a whole
in the roof and settled on the inner side
of a permanently open window before
infesting family members. Two weeks
later (day 1 of symptom onset), a papular
rash and pruritic vesicular lesions were
noted by the parents on the body and
legs of their 2 children, a 1-year-old girl
and a 3-year-old boy. On day 3, the girl’s
body temperature rose to 38.0°C, and the
boy’s temperature rose to 39.5°C. The
rash resolved in ≈10 days in both children. Vesicular lesions on the girl’s buccal
mucosal membrane resolved in 5 days.
Excoriated areas resulting from spontaneous rupture of lesions or scratching were
still visible on day 14.
On day 4, a fever (temperature, 38.5°C)
and intense tibialgia, which persisted for 5
days, developed in the 33-year-old father
of the infected children. On day 5, a
vesicular rash, which resolved in 10 days,
developed in the 33-year-old mother. The
children’s grandfather and both grandmothers also showed symptoms of infection within ≈14 days after having spent
>1 days or nights in the infected family’s
household (Table). In addition, the region* Author affiliations: Charles University,
Prague, Czech Republic (O. Melter);
Zentrum für Gesundheitsschutz, Dillenburg,
Germany (M. Arvand); National Institute
of Public Health, Prague (J. Votýpka, D.
Hulínská)
22
al epidemiologist who was involved in the
investigation showed development of a
severe infection 16 days after exposure to
implicated mites that escaped from a collection tube (Table). Recurrent fevers of
decreasing intensity, followed by remissions at 1-week intervals, were observed
in all patients for up to 3 months.
Seven mites, which were collected
by the father on day 6 after symptom
onset, were identified as engorged and
nonengorged members of the genus
Dermanyssus. After treatment with ethanol, the mites were investigated by culture and DNA analysis. DNA fragments
specific for Bartonella spp. (i.e., a 185-bp
[3] and a 397-bp [4,5] fragment of the 16S
rRNA gene) were amplified; the sequence
of the 397-bp fragment was 100% similar
to the htrA sequence of the B. quintana
strain Toulouse (Table). Results were
negative for PCRs with primers for 16S
rDNA of Anaplasma phagocytophilum
(6) and primers for ospA of Borrelia burgdorferi (7). Only Staphylococcus cohnii
subsp. urealyticus, as part of human or
animal commensal flora, was detected on
blood agar plates that were cultured for 30
days in a microaerophilic atmosphere.
Patient samples were analyzed by
using the specific 16S rRNA primers; the
Bartonella-specific amplicon was found
only in a sample that was collected on
day 4 from the father. Amplification of the
htrA gene fragment of identical size and
with identical sequences also confirmed
the presence of DNA specific for B. quintana in the father’s sample. Hemocultures
were not performed at symptom onset,
but results for patient serum samples
cultured under the same conditions as the
homogenized parasites remained negative. Significant titers of IgG against B.
quintana and B. henselae or IgG seroconversion in paired serum samples were
observed for all patients except the grandfather (Table).
Oral clarithromycin and doxycycline
were administered to the children and
adults, respectively, for 10 days. The
apartment was repeatedly treated with
insecticide, and the hole in the roof was
repaired, leading to eradication of the
mites. The few dead and dry mites that
were available for additional parasitologic
analysis were mounted in Swan mounting
medium (information about the medium is
available from the authors), but no characteristics allowing differentiation between
species of the genus Dermanyssus were
recognized during examination by light
microscopy. Failed attempts were made
to trap pigeons that had lived on the roof
of the apartment or in the same city; however, samples from trapped synanthropic
pigeons from the north (n = 20) and central (n = 33) part of the country were negative for Bartonella spp. by the culture and
amplification methods described above.
Recurrent fever reported by adult patients
resolved in 3 months, and all patients
made a full clinical recovery. Laboratory
findings for the patients were followed for
6 months after symptom onset (Table).
The fact that the suspected vector was
a hematophagous mite (Dermanyssus
sp.), a parasite of synanthropic pigeons
and a suspected vector of other bacterial
pathogens (8,9), and that the 16S rRNA
Bartonella spp. gene was detected in
mites (Steatonyssus sp. from the superfamily Dermanyssoidea) (10) remains a
challenge for additional study. Pigeons
probably played the role of accidental
host in this outbreak, but the source of the
infection remains unclear.
Acknowledgment
We thank V. Rupeš for parasitologic analysis, A. Valkoun for serologic analysis
of specific antibodies to Rickettsia and
Coxiella spp., D. Kafková for collection
of patient data, and E. Kodytková for
manuscript review.
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associated with the hematophagous mite
Dermanyssus gallinae detected by 16S
rRNA PCR amplification and TTGE fingerprinting. Res Microbiol. 2009;160:63–70.
10.Reeves WK, Dowling APG, Dasch
GA. Rickettsial agents from parasitic
Dermanyssoidea (Acari: Mesostigmata).
Exp Appl Acarol. 2006;38:181–8.
Citation:
Melter O, Arvand M, Votýpka J, Hulínská
D. Bartonella quintana transmission from
mite to family with high socio-economic
status [letter]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on
the Internet]. Jan 2012. DOI: 10.3201/
eid1801.110186
Patient and microbiologic data from a study of Bartonella quintana transmission from mites to a family with high socioeconomic
status, Czech Republic, 2007*
Day after symptom onset† Date of specimen collection Specimen type‡ Case-patient
Main symptoms
Specimen testing
IgG titer§ PCR¶ Incubation period, d
1
NA
NA
Daughter, son
Papular rash, pruritic lesions
NA
NA
14
3
2007 Jul 5
Serum
Son
Rash, vesicles, fever (temperature 39°C)
Neg
Neg/ND
14
Serum
Daughter
Rash, vesicles, fever (temperature 39.5°C)
Neg
Neg/ND
14
2007 Jul 6
Serum
Father
Recurrent fever (temperature 38.5°C), tibialgia, headache
256
Pos/pos
15
5
2007 Jul 7
Serum
Mother
Vesicles, tibialgia
512
Neg/ND
16
6
2007 Jul 11
Mites
NA
NA
NA
Pos/pos
NA
28
2007 Aug 2
Serum
Epidemiologist
Malaise, arthralgia, headache
256
Neg/ND
16
35
2007 Aug 9
Serum
Grandfather
Malaise, arthralgia, rash, headache
Neg
Neg/ND
14
Serum
Grandmother 1
Fatigue, malaise
256
Neg/ND
14
Serum
Grandmother 2
Fatigue, malaise
64
Neg/ND
14
Serum
Son
Recurrent fever
256
Neg/ND
14
Serum
Daughter
Recurrent fever
64
Neg/ND
14
4
41
2007 Aug 15
Serum
Father
Malaise and intense headache
256
Neg/ND
15
Serum
Mother
Malaise and intense headache
512
Neg/ND
16
Serum
Grandfather
Recurrent fatigue and malaise
Neg
Neg/ND
14
Serum
Grandmother 1
Recurrent fatigue and malaise
256
Neg/ND
14
68
2007 Sep 11
Mites
NA
NA
NA
Pos/pos
NA
74
2007 Aug 17
Serum
Epidemiologist
Recurrent fever; fatigue and intense headache
512
Neg/ND
16
163
2007 Dec 13
Serum, B, H
Epidemiologist
Poor concentration, headache
256
Neg/ND
16
197
2008 Jan 17
Serum, B, H
Son
None
Neg
Neg/ND
14
Serum, B, H
Daughter
None
Neg
Neg/ND
14
Serum, B, H
Father
Poor concentration, headache
128
Neg/ND
15
Serum, B, H
Mother
None
128
Neg/ND
16
Serum, B, H
Grandmother 1
None
Neg
Neg/ND
14
* NA, not applicable; neg, negative; ND, not done; pos, positive; B, blood with anticoagulant EDTA; H, hemoculture. During
August 9–19, 2007, children and adult case-patients received
oral clarithromycin and oral doxycycline, respectively. On August
9 and 19, 2007, the apartment building in which the casepatients lived was treated with insecticide.
† Days after symptom onset do not correlate with incubation period in last column.
‡ Specimens were analyzed as follows: serum by serologic
testing, EDTA blood by PCR, hemoculture by culture. Patient
serum samples were negative for Anaplasma phagocytophilum
(by immunofluorescence assay [IFA], IgM, and IgG); Borrelia
bugdorferi (by ELISA and Western blot, IgM, and IgG); Coxiella
burnetii, Rickettsia connorii, and R. prowazekii (IFA, total immunoglobulin).
§ Determined by IFA.
¶ Detected by 16S rRNA and by htrA amplification.
23
26/01/2012 11:21:30
Global outlooks to bed bug management
Oliver Madge
I
n 2007, Pest Ex ran what was possibly the first northern hemisphere
seminar on the complications bed
bug infestations could pose. The headline news among the seminars was
that bed bug infestations, between 2002
and 2006, had increased in London
by approximately 28% year-on-year.1
But what has really occurred since this
ground breaking piece of information?
Now, approaching five years later, has
the European Industry adopted and
understood the risks this little, but ‘bigger than you think’, bug can bring?
In order to benchmark the level of
understanding, it is important to look
at other countries approaches; can we
learn from the rest of the world – or
could they learn from us?
During September 2011, Bed Bug
Central ran a two and a half day event,
containing a series of seminars all related to, well, bed bugs. Now, if you are
thinking how on earth can bed bugs
occupy such a long time, without people
either falling asleep or playing games
on their smart phones, consider the programme of topics:
 Utilizing Best Bed bug Strategies
from Around the World;
 Avoiding Costly Lawsuits;
 Adding Ancillary Services & Tools;
 Social Issues and the Psychological
Impact;
 Tackling Bed bugs out of the
Bedroom;
 Look at Heat Treatments;
 New Technology on Bed bug
Detection and Techniques;
 Where is science taking us;
 A Deeper Look at the Evolving
World of Canine Scent Detection;
 Navigating a New World of Gov.
Regulations and Pesticide Options.
Possibly more interesting than the agenda were the demographics of those
attending, as the audience contained
a large proportion of representatives
from the accommodation industry.
Many were keen to further understand
how their businesses were at risk and
comprehend how long-term management and eradication could in fact
aid their business. A number of them
24
also wanted to understand what services
they should be looking to include within
their specifications. At the upcoming
round of European pest events, who
would be willing to wager a bet that this
will not be replicated?
Is this a sign that in America the
message has got through to the decision
makers that they need to sit up and take
notice? One of the breakout sessions
found those present from the accommodation industry discussing the issues
they face and the over whelming message was the inconsistent recommendations that are being presented from the
pest industry. ‘Why’, more importantly
‘what’ and increasingly ‘when’ do they
purchase services from the industry?
Heat, cold, early detection, spray, barriers, encasements, canines, visual – it’s
no wonder that bed bugs have spread
like wildfire around America. But this
is not the fault of the accommodation
industry…
The session ‘Where is science taking
us?’ identified that bed bugs come from
opposing sides of the control options to
other pests. Bed bugs are not like other
pests – take cockroaches for example:
their rate of development, biology and
behaviour, food-sources and even use
of harbourages differ – so why do pest
controllers generally still treat them in
the same way?
Mind-sets to pesticides in America
are slowly starting to recognise that this
is not always the best ‘first-approach’,
something the Europeans are increasingly being ushered towards with Biocides
and Sustainability legislation. However,
attitudes to continual spraying are being
informed that it’s not the most effective
approach, and resistance is not just the
primary reason for this.
The accommodation industry is concerned that putting a guest in a room
that has been sprayed with an insecticide could increase the risk of reaction
by guests that may have asthma, for
example. They simply do not want to
run the risk - but who’s listening? Pest
controllers remain transfixed, begging
for ‘that spray’ that will easily control
infestations and selling treatments that
do not reflect the needs of the customer.
Sean Rollo, one of the presenters
from Canada, gave a very interesting
presentation from the point of view that
they already don’t have many actives
/ formulations in their market. Having
seen an increase in infestations in
Vancouver over the last 18 months, they
are facing an uphill struggle to eliminate
infestations. Will the cost of control be
similar to that of Sydney2 as recently
reported? Well, time will tell. Is this the
real cost of bed bugs?
Insecticides still have a place in the
eradication process. However, they
need to be used as part of an integrated
package and not as the be-all and endall. IPC covered the product side of
the event 12 months ago and this year
there are new products and exhibitors,
but is this necessarily beneficial? The
‘silver bullet’ is alive and well within
the marketing teams from these companies; increasingly very few of them
realise (or fail to admit) that in reality
it is often simply not possible to have
just one method of control. The concept
that ‘product is king’ is fundamentally
flawed.
The point that most seemed to have
missed is that if bed bugs were detected
earlier (and the information presented
on the development rates of bed bugs
by Dr. Warren Booth3 was eye-opening), then the reliance on higher risk
(more toxic) control options would not
be so prevalent for eradication. Their
slow development rates also significantly increases the risk associated with
accommodation brand protection, a
point not missed by the accommodation industry and one that will change
the attitudes to management rather than
reactive control.
Litigation still remains the primary driver for many hotels to adopt a
management policy. Described as the
‘ostrich bug’, because as far as the
hotels consider ‘bed bugs either don’t
occur or it’s the fault of the traveller, not
the hotel’. This position has not gone
26/01/2012 11:21:32
unnoticed by lawyers, and there were at
least half a dozen circling and feeding
on the ignorance around bed bug management. They have already worked out
that if a hotel does not have a proactive
policy for the suitable early detection
and management of bed bugs, and thus
protection of the guests wellbeing, it is a
one-sided ‘no win, no fee’ case. Will we
see the traditional ‘ambulance chasers’
advertising in holiday brochures? Well,
quite possibly – bed bugs are a source
of income, and travellers and guests are
maximising this lottery.
However the American industry has
an ace up their sleeve. U.S Congressman
Robert Dold is supporting the drive for
legislation at the highest level. His presentation painted a wider picture of why
the industry needed to support and defend
itself under a professional approach.
Bed bug populations do not usually
appear ‘overnight’, a detail often misunderstood (but not by the eagle eyes of
the lawyers); in fact at the point when
numerous stages of bed bugs are identified, the infestation could have been onsite for over 2 months - at around 120
days the population levels can explode4
- so why wait until the population has
increased to the point that guests are
being bitten and then complaining?
Stephen Doggett, editor of the
Australian Code of Practice (and BBF
Senate representative) gave a presentation on the position within Australia and
how they have benefited from their code
of practice. It was suggested that the
Americans have missed the boat by not
being more proactive and introducing a
common approach to the eradication of
infestations, and they are now paying
the price for this oversight.
Australia is still engaged in the battle against bed bugs, but they have
become more specialised and professional; more treatments are being completed, but by less operators. Such is
the financial risk of ‘getting it wrong’,
many companies are pulling away from
treatments. Conversely, those who fully
understand the biology, behaviour and
management of bed bugs are doing rather
well. They are not jack-of-all-trades,
they have become the masters – risk
against reward.
U.S Congressman Robert Dold, is
supporting the drive for bed bug legislation
Interestingly Japan has popped up on
the global radar of increasing activity.
Tourists in the land of the rising sun have
awoken to a new meaning of ‘breakfast in bed’. Within the last few years
infestations have dramatically increased,
which raises the question – is this a
new phenomenon or has activity always
been present? Is it now that they are just
detecting infestations and reacting to
bed bugs? We suspect the latter is true.
Attendance by over 40 hotel representatives at a recent seminar in Tokyo would
support their demand for suitable and
sustainable bed bug management. They
are not interested in chemical sprays as
this could compound the risk that their
guests face – an almost identical message that the American Accommodation
representatives agreed on.
During the seminars in Japan, Dr Lee
(Professor of Entomology at University
Sains Malaysia. Visiting Professor,
Kyoto University, Japan) independently
confirmed the presentation that Richard
Naylor (Bed Bug Foundation Senate
representative) presented in London
during ‘An Audience with the Experts’,
June 2010. This research is essential in
the battle against bed bugs, to understand fully how they reproduce, how
they distribute or re-distribute themselves, how they utilise harbourages,
etc,. All combine to formulate the ultimate eradication strategy.
The Hungarian Pest Association
MaKOSZ recently held a seminar on
bedugs, 18 months after EuroPest and
the industry called for a European Code
of Practice5. They are starting to integrate best practice into their industry,
such is the risk associated with tourism
and the economic impact if infestations
should affect high populations of people, as we have seen recently in New
York and previously in Sydney.
The cost of bed bugs is spreading and far reaching in terms of the
impact. Many staff who operate within
these high risk environments, such as
the accommodation industry, medical
facilities and retail outlets live in multioccupancy, high population cities. So if
we have staff living in and working in
the highest risk locations (just like New
York and to a lesser extent Sydney),
there is a very real risk that they will
themselves (often inadvertently) spread
bed bugs – this places everyone at risk.
However, the global increase in awareness has drawn many of the non-believers out into the open, willing to learn
more about this ‘new’ pest and increasingly willing to communicate their experiences. Sharing information and delivering best practice is the only way this pest
will be defeated - it is a global issue. The
accommodation industry is first in the
firing line due to financial compensations and litigation, but the social and
psychological impact on the larger society will be the real cost to bear.
Has the European industry progressed?
In all honesty, it’s hard to tell. Attitudes to
insecticides appear to be as strong as ever,
with the ‘spray and pray’ approach alive
and well; the accommodation industry is
in denial that the pest is an issue or their
responsibility and government appears to
be unwilling to communicate about it.
Generally it appears to be a ticking
‘Ostrich bug’ bomb.
Sources
1 Rothamsted Research. PestEx 2007
2 Doggett et al., 2004e – ICUP860
3 N.Carolina State University
4 Dr Warren Booth
5 www.bedbugfoundation.org/ecop
25
26/01/2012 11:21:35
Pest Management Foundation seeks research proposals
T
he National Pest Management
Association’s (NPMA) charitable organization, the Pest
Management Foundation, today issued
a solicitation for grant proposals related
to the management of structural pests
and pests in urban and suburban environments.
Any submission deemed worthwhile
by the Foundation will be eligible for a
grant of up to $35,000.Eligible entities
include, but are not limited to institutions of higher learning, non-profit
organizations, for-profit businesses, and
individuals.
While the solicitation lists specific
project ideas, the Foundation is interested in any proposal that pertains to the
management of pests in structures and
urban and suburban environments. The
Foundation recently funded research
published by Cornell University,
University of Kentucky, and Spokane
Falls Community College researchers
on the effectiveness of yellowjacket
trapping, the efficacy of residential
mosquito control, and various methods
of controlling the black widow and
hobo spiders.
The Foundation also supported the
World Health Organization’s recently
published research on the public health
significance on public health pests, and
is funding ongoing research on the efficacy of canines as bed bug detectors,
the significance of an emerging invasive
ant species in the Southeastern U.S., the
odorous house ant, and cobweb man-
agement as a strategy to control urban
spiders.
“Our main intent is to generate
the submission of numerous different proposals,” said NPMA Technical
Services Director Jim Fredericks.
“We recognize that there are countless valuable research ideas and issuing anything too prescriptive could
preclude many worthy proposals. We
look forward to carefully reviewing
any and all proposals.”
The deadline for submissions is
Friday, February 17, 2012 and the
target for identifying a worthwhile
applicant is by the end of April. The
solicitation is available at www.
npmapestworld.org/support/foundation.cfm. Questions and proposals
should be directed to Jim Fredericks
at [email protected] or 001
703-352-6762.
Gene mapping of pyrethroid-resistant bed bugs reveals
multiple resistance
A
frightening resurgence of bed
bug infestations has occurred
over the last 10 years in the
U.S. and current chemical methods have
been inadequate for controlling this pest
due to widespread insecticide resistance. Little is known about the mechanisms of resistance present in U.S. bed
bug populations, making it extremely
difficult to develop intelligent strategies
for their control.
Some of the genetic traits that give
bed bugs resistance to insecticides have
now been pinpointed by U.S. researchers. Their findings will help efforts to
understand the biochemical basis for bed
bug resistance to insecticides and provide
molecular markers for surveillance.
The team, led by Zach Adelman, an
associate professor of entomology with
the Vector-Borne Disease Research Group
at Virginia Tech, have identified bed
bugs collected in Richmond, VA which
exhibit both kdr-type (L925I) and metabolic resistance to pyrethroid insecticides.
Using LD50 bioassays, they determined
that resistance ratios for Richmond strain
bed bugs were ~5200-fold to the insecticide deltamethrin.
26
There’s been a resurgence of bed bugs
in the United States in the past decade, and
some bed bugs have developed a resistance to pyrethroids, one of the few classes
of insecticides used to control them. The
Virginia Tech team identified three genes
(cytochrome P450 monooxygenases, carboxylesterases and glutathione S-transferases) that produce enzymes that can
bind to, deactivate and break down two of
the most common pyrethroids, deltamethrin and beta-cyfluthrin.
The researchers also discovered that
insecticide-resistant bed bugs have a
mutation in the sodium channel gene.
Bed bugs and faecal spotting on bed frame
material
This mutation gives the bed bugs partial
resistance to pyrethroid insecticides.
“Different bed bug populations within the U.S. and throughout the world
may differ in their levels of resistance
and resistance strategies, so there is the
need for continuous surveillance,” said
Adelman in a news release.
Highly resistant bed bug populations can have a number of genetic
traits that protect them against pyrethroids and possibly other insecticides,
the researchers concluded. These data
will accelerate efforts to understand the
biochemical basis for insecticide resistance in bed bugs, and provide molecular
markers to assist in the surveillance of
metabolic resistance.
Reference:
Adelman ZN, Kilcullen KA, Koganemaru
R, Anderson MAE, Anderson TD, et al.
(2011) Deep Sequencing of PyrethroidResistant Bed Bugs Reveals Multiple
Mechanisms of Resistance within a
Single Population.
PLoS ONE 6(10): e26228. doi:10.1371/
journal.pone.0026228
26/01/2012 11:21:37
Adelaide, South Australia – A perfect location for
FAOPMA 2012
D
avid Gay, president of both
FAOPMA and the host organisation AEPMA firmly believes that
“Our Asian region is without question an
incredibly exciting place for the future of
the Pest Management Industry” and that
the 24th Annual FAOPMA Conference in
Adelaide from July 11th- 13th this year
will be an excellent showcase for the
region’s industry.
David is sure that the FAOPMA 2012
conference will echo the subtle change
in the direction of our industry toward
understanding a “sustainable future”. The
key message of this conference will be
“People, Profits and the Planet”, and a
balanced program has been developed
with expert speakers covering these topics from Australia, the Asian Region and
Europe. The theme of sustainability is
strongly reflected in the keynote speaker;
The Hon. Tony Burke, the Australian
Minister of State for Sustainability. This
recognises both the importance placed
on sustainability and the importance that
AEPMA places on government relations.
Within the key themes of the conference, “People” will focus on training, education and development of staff
with some examples of how competency
training, codes of practice and traditional
training are used in Australia. “Profit” is
covered by informative presentations on
new products, methodologies and markets
that will enable pest managers to be ahead
of the competition with the latest in-field
advancement, and finally “The Planet”.
Specialist key note presentations will be
made to encourage us to work together as
a global industry to deliver acceptable and
sustainable solutions for our industry now
and in the future on the most important
specific topic facing pest management.
To accommodate the extensive programme, the programme has been split
into two “streams” : Global Topics and
Keynotes which will cover a wide range
of very current global information as
well as generic topics for everyone. This
will give our overseas visitors a wonderful overview of worldwide attitudes
and our local delegates the opportunity to understand what happens outside
Australia. The second stream:Technical
and Practical Applications will concentrate on the very important codes of practice being continually implemented and
updated within Australia, as well as many
technical sessions. This is not only for
local delegates, it also provides international delegates an indication of the high
standards under which our industry operates in Australia under the guidance of the
Australian Environmental Pest Managers
Association.
As always events of this nature rely
on the sponsors and the balance of international and local sponsors is excellent.
Gold sponsor being BASF, with Bayer
providing the Silver tier and well respected Australian company Rapid Solutions
the bronze tier. In addition FMC, Dupont,
Ensystex and Globe are also recognised as
conference sponsors.
As always at FAOPMA events, the
social elements and networking play
an important part in bringing together
the “People, Profits and Planet” and
the organisers have laid on an exciting “after hours” programme both
during the conference and some additional options for those who wish to
make the most of their time in South
Australia.
As David concludes “Adelaide is a
pristine multi-cultural city and the perfect host for FAOPMA 2012 with easy
direct international access, and convenient for exploring the other great cities
and regions of Australia pre or post
conference. We understand, Adelaide is
a long way from home for many, but I
would warmly invite and encourage you
to join us in Adelaide to share the start of
something big.
The conference takes place at the prestigious Adelaide Conference Centre from
July 11th – 13th 2012 with an excellent
range of hotels available. Further details
of the programme, travel and accommodation options can be found at: http://
events.aepma.com.au
27
26/01/2012 11:21:39
Fifty years of attempted biological control of termites –
analysis of a failure
Thomas Chouvenc,* Nan-Yao Su and J. Kenneth Grace
A
new and very thorough review
of termite control practices
using biological control techniques has just been published. Here,
we give an overview of the paper,
which runs to some 41 pages including
extensive references. The full document
is available from ScienceDirect: http://
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
pii/S104996441100168X
“Termites (Isoptera) include more
than 2600 species around the world, but
only a few of them (70–80 species) are
considered of economic importance due
to their damage to manmade structures
and to forestry or agricultural products.
In recent years, there has been a
large increase in the scientific literature
concerning termites which reflects their
economic importance and the availability of funding to support termite
research. Various preventative and remedial strategies are currently used against
pest species in the termite control industry. Concerning subterranean termites
in particular, it has been estimated that
77% of the pest control market share is
represented by soil termiticide applications in the United States.
Despite this heavy reliance upon the
application of soil insecticides, future
termite control technologies may need
to conform to higher environmental
standards.
As an alternative to liquid pesticide
applications, monitoring-baiting procedures with the use of chitin synthesis
inhibitors have been developed, and
are commercially available. Botanical
insecticides have also been considered
although their use remains anecdotal.
The use of predators as biological control agents has been investigated, but
did not reveal any potential for commercial application.
In developed countries, the market for microbial insecticides for
various agricultural pests represents
only 1% of the total crop protection market, and mostly represents
the sale of Bacillus thuringiensis
(Berliner) products. Biological control using pathogens has long been
considered a promising technology
for future termite control options
because termites were assumed to
live in an environment conducive to
entomopathogens.
However, to date, no successful
implementation of biological control
in the termite control industry has
occurred, despite the large body of
scientific literature in this particular
field suggesting that the effort spent to
develop such products has yet to yield
concrete results.
In the current study, we examined
research reports on microbial control
of termites for the past 50 years in a
narrative review in order to summarize evidence from multiple studies.
However, there is an inherent bias in
science toward publication of positive
results as such results have a much
greater chance of reaching publication
in peer reviewed journals than negative
results, and as researchers tend to ‘‘fish
for significance’’.
Thus, an uncritical review of the published studies may lead to an incorrect
and usually overly optimistic conclusion. In addition, the overall scientific
literature suffers from a large accumulation of false (or overly optimistic) positive findings and a dearth of published
negative findings.
Recent advances in the understanding of termite disease resistance mechanisms presented in a companion paper
raise questions about the validity and
applicability of some of the positive
results published within the past 50
years in the field of termite biological control. Some studies may have
used protocols with poor biological relevancy and may also have improperly
and optimistically interpreted the data
provided.
The purpose of our review is to
understand why biological control
of termites using pathogens has not
succeeded despite extensive research
efforts and, conversely, why this field of
research remains active. We discuss the
different protocols used for introduction
of pathogens in a termite colony, cover
the history of termite biological control, re-interpret all data published since
1960, and discuss some of the biases
Extensive termite damage can easily lay hidden.
Thomas Chouvenc, Department of
Entomology and Nematology, Ft. Lauderdale
Research and Education Center, University
of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural
Sciences, 3205 College Avenue, Ft.
Lauderdale, FL 33314, United States
28
26/01/2012 11:21:44
scientists may have confronted which
could contribute to the apparent failure
of termite biological control.
All (to the extent of our knowledge)
of the literature published between
1960 and 2011 was evaluated to investigate any publication bias and to
detect false positives in the form of
overly optimistic conclusions. This reinterpretation supports the idea that
the conclusions frequently expressed
have been misleading to some extent,
or at least overly optimistic, about the
potential for application of biological
control to termites.
Many results obtained from bioassays with poor biological relevancy
have been interpreted as promising,
while few results actually support practical application. We also suggest that
the failure of termite biological control
and the continued research emphasis in
this area resulted in part from unrealistic
optimism about the potential for development of environmentally friendly
methods to control termites, publication
bias, and poor understanding of termite
biology.
The conclusions reached by the paper
are interesting. What is the future of
research on biological control of termites? Our re-interpretation of research
of the past 50 years on the development
of biological control of termites using
pathogens demonstrated that this technology is currently not successful.
Many studies have been overly optimistic, if not misleading, about the real
potential for such application, and all
efforts to date have failed to produce
effective control.
The review of all the available data
published on termite biological control
since the 1960’s, without a re-interpretation of each actual result, would
have suggested that this approach has
great potential for commercial use.
However, our re-interpretation shows
that only 28 out of 356 laboratory
experiments provided sufficient data
to support further research (for termites with one-piece nests only), and
confirms that publication bias and the
accumulation of questionable positive
Termites inside a mound.
findings has led to overestimates of
the real potential for termite biological control.
Langewald and Cherry (2000) mentioned that one of the reasons for limited implementation of microbial control
is the pursuance of an inappropriate
model for biopesticide development,
based on small research teams lacking
the multidisciplinary expertise required.
The accumulation of independent studies testing pathogens against termites
throughout the world in the past decades and the absence of actual product
development and implementation suggest that this is also true for the field of
termite biological control.
In addition, in many microbial control research projects, pest problems
have been approached with no clear
implementation route in. It was often
thought that it would be easy to replace
a chemical pest control product with a
microbial product, but the difficulties
in proceeding from research to technology transfer and implementation have
prevented such success, a situation that
also applies to research on biological
control of termites.
Recent advances in the understanding of termite defence against infection
have demonstrated that microbial control of subterranean termites is currently
unfeasible because of the need for infectious agents to bypass various defence
mechanisms in order to allow epizootics to occur. The use of paratrangensis
has been considered, but this approach
remains mainly theoretical.
The use of immuno-suppressors has
also been considered to enable pathogens to bypass the immune defences of
termites and may indeed open possibilities for the future of biological control,
but has not been fully developed or
tested in the field.
With respect to inundative applications for one-piece and mound-building
colonies, it is technically possible to
achieve control in certain cases, but it
remains unrealistic for large-scale or
commercial applications.
The evidence from 50 years of
research indicates that biological control has failed to show real promise for
termite control despite the claims resulting from laboratory bioassays testing
pathogens for virulence. Certainly, these
are valid studies, and are necessary to
obtain a pathogenic agent suitable for
biological control, but claims that the
results are biologically relevant to costeffective biological control for termites
at this point are extremely premature.
As Grace (2003) and Chouvenc
and Su (2010) suggested, so long as
researchers keep insisting upon a classical approach to termite biological control, it will remain unsuccessful. Instead,
by focusing research in understanding
the complex biology of termites, particularly their various defence mechanisms investigators may find a way for
pathogens to bypass such mechanisms,
and improve prospects for biological
control.
Reference
Biological Control, Volume 59, Issue 2,
November 2011, Pages 69-82
29
26/01/2012 11:21:45
Bed bug monitoring – from demand assessment to
market introduction
Steffen König, Frowein GmbH & Co. KG, Albstadt
H
ow can bed bug infestations be
reliably localised with modern
technology?Are the well reviewed
“bed bug monitors” that are currently on
the market functional and reliable? These
and other relevant questions are often
asked, and so we wanted to answer these
questions together with a partner from the
hygiene network (Schneemeister GmbH).
But first we needed to decide how to
proceed and the kind of information that
would be most helpful.
Screening and Monitoring
Due to our long-standing collaboration with
the Albstadt-Sigmaringen University of
Applied Science in the field of pest control,
we offered a bachelor’s thesis project as a
first step. The title was “Bed bugs – screening and monitoring”. Two students from
the Food, Nutrition and Hygiene course In
the Faculty of Life Sciences applied for this
project. The aim of the study was to carry out
comparative tests on three currently available monitors. At the same time, the bed bugs
were provided with different hiding places.
Experiments were carried out in the laboratory (premises of the Albstadt-Sigmaringen
University of Applied Science) and in a purpose-built hotel room in the premises of the
Frowein company. The project lasted from
the beginning of October until the end of
November 2009. It was carried out by two
students and supervised by us.
Bed bugs
All bed bugs used in our experiments came
from the colony of Bayer Crop Science
Deutschland GmbH. Temperatures in the
laboratory were maintained at over 20°C,
and the bed bugs had the possibility to take
blood every 14 days. The bugs used in our
experiments were either adults or in the final
stage of development.
was as realistic as possible, a new, unused
and untreated carpet was laid on the existing
laminate floor (no insecticide treatment by
the manufacturer). The edges were taped
over with adhesive tape to prevent the bed
bugs from getting under the carpet.
A corner segment was cut out and not
taped. This was to provide an additional
hiding place for the bed bugs, and was used
as monitoring point. The furniture consisted
of a window frame with curtains (although
the room had no windows), a bed with a
metal frame, a mattress, an eiderdown and
a pillow, three pieces of wooden furniture
and two chairs with metal frames and cushioned upholstery.
All openings, sockets etc. in the room
were sealed. The three monitors as well as
two additional hiding places (a cockroach
monitor and a cable duct with fabric insert)
were appropriately positioned on the bed
or in other places. The locations of the
monitors were changed during the course
of experiment in order to obtain as broad a
picture as possible.
At the start of the experiment, a cage
housing three guinea pigs was placed on the
middle of the bed. These warm-blooded animals were intended to simulate a competing
host. The cage was surrounded on all sides
by a double-sided adhesive barrier.
This meant that the bed bugs were
attracted by the guinea pigs, but could not
come into contact with them. Animal welfare regulations were observed with respect
to the guinea pigs. They were kept in a suitable cage appropriate to the species.
Experimental set-up 3
This set-up was based on the course of
experiment 1, except for the following
changes: The carpet was removed, the
Experiment 1
This set-up was based on Experiment 3.
The intention here was to see whether our
bed bugs behaved differently at a room
temperature of 20°C. The only changes
were the room temperature and the addition of a third box. The movements of the
bed bugs were investigated at night in the
third box. The time course of temperature
was again recorded accurately with a temperature logger.
The products (competitors) used here are
not specified by name. They included active
and passive monitors.
A model of a hotel room 15 m² in size was
constructed and furnished appropriately. In
order to achieve an experimental set-up that
metal frame of the bed was replaced by
a wooden frame, the guinea pigs were
removed and a radiator (400 W) with
timer was installed in the room.
In both experiments, the room temperature was monitored with a temperature logger (ebro Electronic GmbH; also a partner in
the hygiene network). The relative humidity
was also measured. According to Kemper
(1930), the optimal temperature range is
between 15°C and 40°C.
The reason for carrying out Experiment
3 in parallel with Experiment 2 was that
the results obtained from Experiment
1 were somewhat confused and unexpected. No typical behaviour was found
in Experiment 1.
In this experimental set-up, two transport
boxes with dimensions 600 x 400 x 200 mm
were lined with corrugated cardboard so that
the surface was more comfortable for the
bed bugs. All the edges were taped to eliminate hiding places. A cockroach monitor and
a cable duct (with fabric insert) were placed
in both boxes. A third monitor with a heat
source was placed in one box and another
active monitor was placed in the second
box. The room temperature was 18°C.
Test products
30
Experiment 2
26/01/2012 11:21:47
Bachelor thesis: development of a
monitor
Transport boxes with heat source and active monitor
Summary
The results and their analysis suggest that
bed bugs choose their hiding places mainly
by chance. The low capture rates of the
monitors make it clear that they do not
function as effectively as claimed by the
suppliers. The attempt to attract the bed bugs
using heat alone did not have the desired
result. The monitors tested are not suitable
for professional monitoring.
Literature research
Another project “Bed bugs – Literature
Research” was offered in parallel with the
project on “Screening and Monitoring”. A
student carried out this project in the period
mentioned above.
The aim of this project was to review
the extensive and partly very old literature
held by the Frowein company, which
dated from the nineteen-twenties until
the present, with a view to summarising
important information. External literature sources were also included. It was
hoped that these sources together with our
screening project would form the basis
for development of a new monitor. The
most interesting information was from the
literature of the 1920s to the 1940s.
Conclusion
We used the experimental results and literature sources as a basis for the development
of a marketable bed bug monitor.
A bachelor’s thesis on this subject (Bed
bugs – Development of a Monitor) was then
offered during the final phase of the project
work. Fortunately, we were able to attract a
student from the project work. This thesis
was envisaged as a completion and extension of both projects.
The basic idea behind the monitors that
were tested is quite viable and logical. These
approaches should therefore be considered
for our monitor. The experiments carried
out here should therefore also satisfy the
requirements already described – a host,
an environment that is suitable for bed
bugs and a diurnal rhythm. The activity
of the bed bugs in our special containers
was documented with video surveillance.
The experiments described below all had
a similar set-up and differed only in a few
parameters.
However, all tests carried out in the laboratory had one thing in common: there was
a shortage of bed bugs and the simulation
with and without a host was not realistic,
so that only the attraction behaviour and the
movements of the bed bugs could be documented. The bed bugs were never captured,
31
26/01/2012 11:21:47
FOCUS ON PUBLIC HEALTH
since, (as in a real hotel room), they were
normally able to return to their hiding place
after moving about.
Experiment 1
The movement behaviour of the bed bugs
and its timing was examined here. The night
phase was documented using a night vision
camera. The bed bugs were able to retreat
to a hiding place in the form of a small transport plate made of folded cardboard as well
as another hiding place. The transport plate
was populated with freshly-fed bed bugs
five days prior to the start of the experiment,
so that the hiding place was treated with the
bed bugs’ own pheromones.
Experiment 2
Identical to Experiment 1. In addition, a
heat source was provided using a terrarium
heating tape. This allowed heat perception
to be recorded.
Experiment 3
Identical to Experiment 2, except that carbon dioxide was used as attractant. The
idea was to increase the level of attraction
and document the perception of CO2 by the
bed bugs.
Experiment 4
In the fourth and last laboratory experiment,
the behaviour of the bed bugs was investigated with the first prototype.
Experiment 5
Here the prototype was tested in a private
household. The residents had already had
problems with bed bugs for several weeks.
This infestation was not completely eliminated by an initial treatment.
The house – a passive house constructed
with wood – provided ideal hiding places
for bed bugs. The prototype was placed for
one week in a children’s room where infestation had previously been ascertained; the
room was not occupied for this period.
Results
The results of all experiments were evaluated separately. The focus was on the
behaviour of the bed bugs. Average activity
during the night, nocturnal activity during
a week and the average location on each
morning was documented with the night
vision camera and the special features of the
containers. The questions addressed by the
records were:
 How is the intensity of walking activity
related to the degree of hunger?
 At what times are bed bugs active during the night?
 Do bed bugs seek new hiding places or
do they stay in their normal retreats?
 Can heat increase the level of activity?
 Can the level of activity be increased by
a combination of heat and CO2?
 Do bed bugs react to the attractants that
were used?
 Is the technique used suitable for application in the prototype?
 Does the prototype work in the laboratory and in a real environment?
Our prototype was presented to the
German market for the first time at the Pest
Control Convention in Vienna and at the
Grünau Convention. One personal point:
please understand that we cannot publish
details of all aspects. This also applies to
details of the experiment descriptions.
Literature and image sources
Projects -Lisa Roggenstein and Felix Rieger,
winter semester.
2009/2010 (Bed Bugs – Screening and
Monitoring); Project -Felix C. Krohmer winter
semester.
2009/2010 (Bed Bugs – Literature
Research); Bachelor’s thesis -Felix C.
Krohmer 2010 (Bed Bugs – Development.
of a Monitor); Frowein GmbH & Co. KG
Albstadt.
Hollow cone prototype
The bed bug monitor that has now been
developed is based on the simultaneous
release of heat and CO2. Both are released
constantly at a similar dosage within a
model body, specifically designed for this
purpose. The bed bugs that are attracted
are trapped in place with a special adhesive
surface. CO2 is released by a special CO2
generator, which produces and releases CO2
for approximately 4 – 6 weeks after activation. Market introduction is planned for
April / May 2011.
The movement behaviour of bed bugs and its timing was examined using a night vision camera.
2
The bed bug monitor is based on the
simultaneous release of heat and CO2 by a
special CO2 generator.
Prototype during laboratory test / Experiment 4
26/01/2012 11:21:52
26/01/2012 11:21:55
Insect pheromone based food moth combat systems
used in food industry
Dr Nayem Hassan*
S
tored food products are susceptible to pest infestation.
Food moths often cause severe
qualitative losses and quantitative
degradations in the food industry
throughout the world. Stored product insect control mainly relies on
the use of conventional chemical
and fumigation.
The Montreal Protocol banning
ozone-depleting gases, such as methyl
bromide has left the food industry with
less effective tools for pest control. The
need to develop bio-rational pest management technologies in stored-products, such as those using pheromones
and food volatiles, is greater than ever.
Pheromone-baited traps are successfully used for monitoring stored
products insects. Until now, 40
stored product insect’s pheromones
have been identified. Now, with a
program of continuous improvement
insect pheromone based products
can go beyond monitoring tools to
direct management systems as an
alternative to chemical pesticides.
The use of the pheromones for
suppressing pest populations through
mating disruption has been developed to combat food moths. The
pheromone component, cis-9,trans12-tetradecadienyl acetate, known
as ZETA or TDA baited dispensers
can be used to disrupt mating of
most food moths Plodia / Ephestia.
Insect pheromone based systems can
also be used for monitoring and mass
trapping to combat food as an alternative to conventional chemicals.
successful mating between male and
female insects.
Russell IPM has developed the
Dismate PE mating disruption system
to combat food moths present in food
processing and manufacturing facilities
such as food processing and storage
facilities, breakfast cereal manufacturing facilities, chocolate factories, commercial bakeries, nut or dried grain
storage or grain silos.
Dismate PE is designed for professional use to combat:




Indian meal moth
Mill moth
Warehouse moth
Tropical warehouse moth
 Raisin moth
 Cocoa moth.
Dismate PE is a ready to use system
which comes in 4 distinctive colour
coded dispensers; this makes it easy
to detect and ensures that all dispensers have been changed correctly. Dismate PE dispensers release
a steady amount of pheromone for
over 3 months.
Dismate PE is a solid plastic dispenser which can be hung 2-3 meters
above the food processing plant floor at
a secure fixed position and is changed
every 3 months. This system complies
fully with HACCP regulations. Dismate
PE is also metal detectable to maintain
Mating disruption of Plodia /
Ephestia
The mating disruption technique is
the most widespread control application of pheromones in which egg
laying by the female is minimized
or prevented by interfering with the
* Russell IPM ltd, Unıt 68,Thırd Avenue,
Deesıde Industrıal Park,Flıntshıre CH5 2LA,
Unıted Kıngdom. Correspondence: nayem@
russellıpm.net
34
26/01/2012 11:21:55
further safety. Dismate PE system is
now registered in the UK. The HSE
approval number is 9346.
Key Benefits
 Proven food moth control system
with a 10 year track record.
 Curative and preventative
replacement to Methyl Bromide
without downtime.
 Non toxic and zero residue in
treated areas and commodities.
 Continual preventative control
strategy.
 Cost effective control for food
moths.
Efficacy trial results of Dismate
PE in the UK
Dismate PE performance has been
proven by continuous trials and
improvements in real life manufacturing conditions from 2002-2009.
The efficacy of the Dismate PE system has been evaluated in a breakfast cereal factory in the United
Kingdom.
In 2005 the total trap catch followed a similar trend apart from
a slight increase in trap catches in
the months July to September in
the packing hall. A maximum of
12 insects / trap / month was captured in pheromone traps during the
month of August. A small increase
in the number of trapped males was
observed during the warmer months
between July to September. Again,
the location where the maximum
numbers of insects were captured
was in the packaging hall throughout
the year.
In 2006 again the total trap catches
of moths in the mating disruption
trial areas was extremely low. In 6
out of the 9 mating disruption trial
areas the trap catch was absolutely
zero, due to the effect of mating disruption. Extremely low levels of trap
catch were found in the Fruit tunnel
area. As in previous years higher trap
catches were observed in the packing
hall. In comparison with the initial
population in the packing hall, trap
catches were significantly lower than
that of the initial trappings.
One reason suggested why there
were comparatively high trap catches in the packaging hall could be
an accumulation of various stored
commodities in the packing hall.
Another possible reason may be that
windows were opened in summer
allowing new populations of moths
into the building.
The trails were continued until
2009 and it was found that Dismate
PE system successfully kept the
Plodia / Ephestia infestation below
economic threshold level. It can be
concluded that Plodia interpunctella
and Ephestia species were controlled solely by Russell IPM’s mating
disruption system Dismate PE.
Customer complaints were reduced
drastically and to date there are no
complaints in the years 2009 – 2010.
The cereal manufacturer is now able
to control Plodia and Ephestia ssp.
on their premises without application of any chemical insecticides.
Since, 2002 this cereal manufacturer has not had to stop production
in the factory to allow the premises
to undergo annual chemical fumigation.
In 2006 again the total trap catches of moths in the mating disruption trial areas was
In
2006 again the total trap catches of moths in the mating disruption trial areas was
extremelylow.In6outofthe9matingdisruptiontrialareasthetrapcatchwasabsolutely
extremelylow.In6outofthe9matingdisruptiontrialareasthetrapcatchwasabsolutely
zero,duetotheeffectofmatingdisruption.Extremelylowlevelsoftrapcatchwerefoundin
35
theFruittunnelarea.Asinpreviousyearshighertrapcatcheswereobservedinthepacking
zero,duetotheeffectofmatingdisruption.Extremelylowlevelsoftrapcatchwerefoundin
hall. In comparison with the initial population in the packing hall, trap catches were
theFruittunnelarea.Asinpreviousyearshighertrapcatcheswereobservedinthepacking
significantlylowerthanthatoftheinitialtrappings.Onereasonsuggestedwhytherewere
hall. In comparison with the initial population in the packing hall, trap catches were
26/01/2012 11:21:56
Rob Fryatt interviews… David Gay, President of FAOPMA
and Stephen Ware, Executive Director of AEPMA
I
n this edition we
feature another
in our series of
interviews, this time
it is with two leadRob Fryatt
ers of the Australian
Environmental Pest
Managers Association, known in the
industry worldwide as AEPMA.
The Australian association has for
many years been seen as one of the top
five worldwide. Why? Many factors
could be considered but as an “outsider”
who has worked with many Australian
companies and closely with AEPMA
over many years, I believe it is because
the Association made significant moves
to improve levels of professionalism
within their domestic industry earlier than many national associations, in
addition, over many years AEPMA has
benefitted from professional management and leadership and finally because
it has engaged itself with government to
shape the legislation that it has to work
within.
One external factor that drives the
industry is the federal structure within
Australia leads to the need for closer
ties between state and national structure
which results in clear national leadership
supported by a strong federal team.
Stephen Ware, AEPMA Executive
Director is a professional association
manger, appointed a few years ago
after previously leading the National
Bee Keepers Association. David Gay,
has held the presidency just a little
longer. David who is owner of W.R
Gay Pest Control, based out of Victoria
State, has unexpectedly found himself
as the caretaker president of FAOPMA
through the recent untimely death of
the president Leo Villegas. All this in
the year that AEPMA in July hosts the
annual FAOPMA event in the city of
Adelaide.
Ahead of the event, International
Pest Control has taken the opportunity
to catch up with both Stephen and
David.
Stephen, I remember us sitting
together on a coach as we toured
termite invested bush in Northern
36
Territories just after you had
been appointed. Tell us your first
impressions of the industry when
you arrived.
As you know Rob, prior to joining
AEPMA, my experience lay in the
management of industry Associations.
Despite the relatively small size of the
industry, like anyone from outside the
industry, I hadn’t realised its complexity, the range of pests and the importance of some of the industry issues
to the average Australian. Termite
control is critical to most Australian
home owners!
David, compared to your
predecessors, outside of Australia
you have been seen as a relatively
high profile President. Is this
the same back home? Australia
is a big country how so how do
you manage your involvement
whilst being hands on in your own
business.
In Australia I’m not so much high
profile as the projects which AEPMA
undertakes. We have a business plan
for AEPMA which has a lot of key
projects that are developing simultaneously. Leading these projects has
raised my personal profile, rather
than my physical presence around the
country. In AEPMA we see the role
of President as a team role and we
have a very good Executive Office
run by Stephen. I am fortunate to have
such a good personal assistant within
our own business and that helps me
greatly.
Stephen, my impression is that
AEPMA plays a strong role
in engaging and influencing
legislation. How do you manage
this, are there any lessons other
national industry associations can
learn from the “Australian Way”
Australia’s unique approach to government with three levels – Local,
State and Federal – make the role of a
national organisation interesting to say
the least! There are lessons that we
have learnt, the most important is that
despite the number of levels of government and public servants we deal
with, they are all seeking solutions
and AEPMA has achieved credibility
by providing sound and defendable
advice whilst promoting solutions to
problems being encountered by policy
makers. This has given us enormous
credibility.
David due to unexpected
circumstances you find yourself
as president of FAOPMA at a time
of change within the organisation.
How do you see FAOPMA evolving
in the future.
FAOPMA and all the member countries have a great opportunity to shape
the future of our industry within the
region as well as contribute to the
increasingly important global industry
debate. The leadership of collaboration and cooperation on projects and
initiatives that will advance and lift
the professional pest management
industry within the region is a role
that FAOPMA must assume.
Stephen, being the host country
for the FAOPMA event brings its
rewards and challenges, especially
with the success of Brisbane in
2006 still fresh in the industry’s
memory. What do you think are
the ingredients for a successful
regional event?
Indeed Rob the challenge to host an
exceptional FAOPMA event grow
each year and we kbnow we set a
high standard back in Brisbane only
a few years ago. What we hope to
achieve in Adelaide is a world class
conference that provides a way forward with some new information to
enable a pest management company,
whether they be from Australia, India,
China, Korea or any other country, to
take away something from the conference to allow them to enhance
their business.
26/01/2012 11:21:57
long time, as a result the major international food companies are already
present in Australia. We have been and
continue to be a major food exporting
country. The development of our Code
of Practice in collaboration with the
national food industry we hope will
not only ensure the Australian food
industry’s continued competitiveness
but, will also enhance and contribute
to the pest management industry’s
ability to ensure the highest standards
for pest control around the world.
David, the focus for the FAOPMA
conference is “People, Profits and
the Planet”. How will we see that
reflected in the actual event.
David Gay, President of FAOPMA
David, in Europe as you are aware,
CEPA has a clear role to engage
with the European Commission
as a regional organisation and we
have the important CEN process
a unifying banner. Do you see
the role for FAOPMA similar or
different and indeed does the work
CEPA is doing such as through
the CEN project have any value to
FAOPMA?
FAOPMA has a different mission and
purpose to CEPA, however the harmonisation of regulation within the
region is now a priority and this
is an area where close collaboration
with CEPA can be of benefit to the
region. Member organisations within
FAOPMA can learn from each other
and can use the experience of CEPA
as regulatory issues continue to develop within the region.
Stephen, as the clients for pest
management, such as the food
industry and hospitality become
increasingly international how
does the Australian industry need
to change – if at all?
Australian companies have been operating in the international arena for a
We have carefully chosen the speakers
and topics to deliver a message in each
of the three categories. The underlying theme is sustainability and our
industry globally needs to be continually involved in this conversation.
So Stephen, in one sentence why
should delegates attend FAOPMA
this year?
This year we have put together a most
informative programme for not only
Australian pest controllers but any
leading company within the region.
This includes looking at the latest in
technology, the future direction of the
pest control industry and finally some
practical tools to gain a competitive
edge in the changing world of pest
control. Any leading company should
be attending!
Finally, David, a big question:
Where do you see the Industry in
20 years time?
I believe we’ll have an industry that
has a much closer relationship with
our regulators and consumers. As
the Australian Environmental Pest
Manager’s Association we will
strengthen our relationships and work
in harmony with all that share our concerns for sustainability and the environment. Rob can I take this oppor-
Stephen Ware, Executive Director AEPMA
tunity to make an open invitation to
the global pest management industry
– come and share FAOPMA with us
in Adelaide, contribute your knowledge and skills to the success of our
conference and take away something
new for the benefit of your business.
While you are here we can assure you
genuine Aussie hospitality with great
friendship and a great time.
With a strong leadership team,
based on professional association
management and a clear
understanding of the challenges
facing the pest management
professional, the Australian
industry will continue to be one
of the leading organisations in our
industry worldwide.
I am sure that as with Hobart in
1998 and Brisbane in 2006, the
FAOPMA event in Adelaide will
be a must attend event in 2012.
I personally look forward to
returning to Adelaide with AEPMA
which holds special memories. I
will be there and look forward to
reporting on a great event July
11-13 at the Adelaide Convention
Centre (www.events.aepma.com.
au).
37
26/01/2012 11:22:03
focus on AGRICULTURE
Hope for avocado as country sets wasps on fruit flies
K
enya has released imported
wasps to fight the invader fruit
fly paving the way for the lifting of a ban that was imposed on avocado exports three years ago, according
to Catherine Riungu writing on the
AllAfrica.com website
Scientists have been conducting
research on the predator insects that
were imported from the US in 2006,
and last week, the country finally
embarked on a concerted war against
the pest that has cost more than Ksh3
billion ($33.4 million) in export earnings since South Africa shut its doors
on avocado imports in 2008.
The all-out war was waged with the
release of the two wasps from Hawaii
- Fopius arisanus which attacks eggs
and Diachasmimorpha longicaudata
which attacks larvae.
The wasps were let loose with government permission by scientists from
the International Centre for Insect
Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in the
coast region, the first in a series of such
releases in key fruit growing regions.
According to head of horticulture
at ICIPE Dr Sunday Ekesi, who doubles as the principal scientist and programme leader of the African Fruitfly
Programme based in Nairobi, the historical event signifies the first importation of the parasitoids in Africa, whose
success will see the programme replicated all over the continent.
The wasps that are natural enemies
help in controlling infestation by laying their eggs in the body of the target
insect, which is then used as food
for the developing larvae, eventually
destroying it.
After successful experiment on ecosafety in Magadi, the researchers have
done mass laboratory production and
rearing of these parasitoids that were
released in Kilifi at a well attended
ceremony witnessed by scientists from
ICIPE, agriculture ministry, farmers
and other interested parties.
Considering that the natural enemies
have a capacity to eliminate parasitism by 40 per cent, other methods that
were also unveiled will be employed
in tandem. These include a cocktail
of special traps, biological pesticides
and sanitation to achieve an acceptable
level of control of the pest Bactocera
dorsalis, that is reported to have been
introduced on the continent from Sri
Lanka in 2003, spreading with reckless abandon due to lack of a natural
predator.
Entomologists have been studying
the lifecycle of the fruit fly in order
to understand how to control it with
methods suitable to the African environment. Research indicates that the
The parasitic wasp Diachasmimorpha longicaudata attacks larvae.
38
mature female lays eggs on the fruit
after piercing the skin. The eggs hatch
into larvae and start feeding on the
fruit, which rots and falls off. Once
on the ground, the larvae pupate and
hibernate in the soil, hatch and attack
mangoes, bananas, oranges and the
cycle continues.
To beef up the imported natural
predators, scientists are now recommending that farmers use poisoned protein baits as the best method. Females
need proteins to lay eggs that hatch and
are easily attracted to it from a distance
and killed by the insecticide. The baits
are placed at a spot on the canopy or
set on the tree trunk of each tree in the
orchard. The traps can be made locally from yellow plastic cans, that are
poked and the bait such as Mazofern is
spread. The trap is replenished weekly.
Insects are naturally attracted to the
colour yellow.
Developed alongside the female
magnet is a male version. A local firm,
Farm Consult has developed wicks that
only attract the males. The wicks are
laced with methyl euginol mixed with
the insecticide Malathion and works
the same way. Elimination of males
leads to the laying of infertile eggs
drastically reducing the pest population. “For best results apply both methods to kill male and female insects,”
said Dr Ekesi.
26/01/2012 11:22:07
Vegetable oil - the new pesticide
S
cientists at Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization
have developed an environmentally friendly pesticide
based on vegetable oil. The material is effective against
a number of ubiquitous pests that target vegetables such as
tomatoes, zucchini and peppers as well as cereal grains including wheat, barley and oats.
It is effective not only against mites and aphids but also
fungal diseases such as powdery mildew, which causes
hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to grain crops
around the world every year.
The new pesticide is effective not only in killing parasites and other disease agents but also in preventing crops
from becoming infected in the first place. According to
the announcement the research team, led by Dr. Samuel
Gan-Mor, says their agent is cheaper than chemical control agents now in use. Several factors contribute to the
oil-based pesticide’s relatively low cost – it can be stored
at room temperature and does not need the addition of
expensive preservatives. The main ingredient is also cheap
– cooking oil that costs about a dollar per litre. In addition,
it is highly effective in small amounts so a little goes a
long way.
The researchers at ARO say they have found no evidence of pests developing resistance to the material, as
with chemical pesticides. In tests on plants, no evidence of
residue was found on or in the crops, eliminating the need
for a waiting period between spraying and harvesting. The
identity of the exact type of plant used in the new pesticide
is being kept under wraps, but the researchers did say it is
being grown commercially in the Arava Desert.
New herbicide gets broader approval
F
ollowing an approval restricted to sugar beets,
Arysta LifeScience has earned unrestricted approval of Clethodim in 15 of 27 EU countries. The postemergence herbicide is now available in Europe for use on
sugar beets, oil seed rape, sunflower and potatoes.
The implementing regulation amending the condition of approval of clethodim was adopted during the
December 9 meeting of the Standing Committee on Food
Chain and Animal Health in Brussels. Removal of the
restriction means that all uses of clethodim, registered on
30 November 2011, can continue, according to Arysta.
As soon as the decision for a restricted approval was
taken in January 2011, Arysta LifeScience submitted a
supplementary dossier, containing new data, to reconfirm
the safety of clethodim and to allow for a decision to lift
the restrictions in the clethodim approval.
While working on the removal of the restrictions,
Arysta LifeScience also continued the development of
clethodim in Europe. “Clethodim is an important compound in Arysta LifeScience’s portfolio and a key product
for the European graminicide market,” said Kevin P.
Smith, President and CEO of Arysta LifeScience SAS.
“This full approval together with new projects on clethodim will ensure that clethodim remains an important
tool for the European farmer.”
26/01/2012 11:22:08
Controlling whiteflies the natural way
S
cientists at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) are showing
Arizona cotton growers how to
reduce their dependence on broad-spectrum insecticides by controlling sweetpotato whiteflies with greener alternatives.
Some Arizona growers continue to combat whiteflies with broad-spectrum insecticides that wipe out a number of insects,
despite the availability of sprays that specifically target whiteflies. Steve Naranjo, a scientist with USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service (ARS), and Peter Ellsworth of the
University of Arizona conducted a study
where they treated some plots with insecticides specific to whiteflies and other plots
with broad-spectrum insecticides. They left
a third set of plots as untreated controls.
Naranjo is a research leader and acting
center director at the ARS U.S. Arid-Land
Agricultural Research Centre in Maricopa.
The results, published in Biological
Control (www.journals.elsevier.com/
biological-control), showed that whiteflies initially died off at about the same
rate in areas treated with both the white-
fly-specific and the broad-spectrum
insecticides. But as the growing season
continued, the area where the researchers sprayed broad-spectrum insecticides
had to be repeatedly sprayed to control
whiteflies, while there was no need to
spray the area treated once with the
whitefly-specific insecticide. In those
areas, the whitefly’s natural enemies
survived the initial spraying and continued to feed on whiteflies.
Naranjo and Ellsworth also found a
way to reduce the impact of whitefly
migration from cantaloupe to cotton,
which is a persistent problem in Arizona.
The researchers showed that when cantaloupe is grown near cotton, whiteflies
will typically reach excessive levels on
cotton in July, coinciding with the end of
the cantaloupe harvest and the passing
of sufficient time for pest populations to
grow after they initially invade cotton.
They also found that a single application of whitefly-specific insecticide on
cotton preserved a sufficient supply of
the natural enemies and caused a “knock
Whiteflies proliferate on cotton plants near
Blythe, California. Photo by Edward McCain.
down” of whitefly populations to levels
where the enemies could control whiteflies for the rest of the growing season.
The results, described in Biological
Control and Pest Management Science,
show the benefits of using insecticides
designed specifically to control whiteflies.
A new method for considering exposure to pesticides
A
recent report by Coble et al
in the International Journal of
Environmental Research and
Public Health describes a new method
for considering exposure to pesticides.
An algorithm developed to estimate
pesticide exposure intensity for use in
epidemiologic analyses was revised
based on data from two exposure monitoring studies. In the first study, they
estimated relative exposure intensity
based on the results of measurements
taken during the application of the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid
(2,4-D) (n = 88) and the insecticide
chlorpyrifos (n = 17).
Modifications to the algorithm weighting factors were based on geometric
means (GM) of post-application urine
concentrations for applicators grouped
by application method and use of chemically-resistant (CR) gloves. Measurement
data from a second study were also used
to evaluate relative exposure levels associated with airblast as compared to hand
spray application methods. Algorithm
modifications included an increase in the
40
exposure reduction factor for use of CR
gloves from 40% to 60%, an increase
in the application method weight for
boom spray relative to in-furrow and
for air blast relative to hand spray, and
a decrease in the weight for mixing
relative to the new weights assigned for
application methods.
The weighting factors for the revised
algorithm now incorporate exposure
measurements taken on Agricultural
Health Study (AHS) participants for
the application methods and personal
protective equipment (PPE) commonly
reported by study participants.
research to characterize the movement
of pollutants from the source to contact
with humans. Their multidisciplinary
research program produces Methods,
Measurements, and Models to identify
relationships between and characterize
processes that link source emissions,
environmental concentrations, human
exposures, and target-tissue dose. The
impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
The paper is available as an open
acess PDF (115 KB) from http://www.
mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/12/4608/pdf
Reference
Purpose / objective
The National Exposure Research
Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure
and Atmospheric Sciences Division
(HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human
health and the environment. HEASD′s
research program supports Goal 1
(Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People)
of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, the researchers’ division conducts
Coble, J., K. W. Thomas, C. J. Hines,
J. Hoppin, M. Dosemeci, B. Curwin,
J. Lubin, L. B. Freeman, A. Blair, D.
Sandler, And M. Alavanja. An Updated
Algorithm for Estimation of Pesticide
Exposure Intensity in the Agricultural
Health Study. International Journal
of Environmental Research and
Public Health. Molecular Diversity
Preservation International, Basel,
Switzerland, 8(12):4608-4622, (2011).
26/01/2012 11:22:12
Rice Institute calls for cuts in pesticide use
T
o prevent devastating insect pest
outbreaks in rice that cause millions of dollars of damage, the
International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) has called for a ban on certain
insecticides in rice production as part of
its new Action plan (http://irri.org/images/hot_topics/action plan.pdf) to reduce
planthopper damage to rice crops in Asia.
At a conference in Hanoi, Vietnam,
IRRI brought together leaders in the rice
industry to advance towards a “greener
game plan” to manage brown planthoppers, which, without exaggeration, are
one of a rice farmer’s worst fears.
“We need to seriously rethink our current pest management strategies so we
don’t just cope with current outbreaks,
but prevent and manage them effectively
in the long run,” says Dr. Bas Bouman,
head of the Crop and Environmental
Sciences Division at IRRI and leader
of the Global Rice Science Partnership
(GRiSP) program on sustainable production systems.
“At the conference we engaged
policymakers, agricultural scientists,
researchers, extension workers, and the
private sector that have a direct stake in
Vietnam’s agricultural industry and can
make a positive contribution to a longterm planthopper management strategy,”
said Dr. Bouman.
Considered a major scourge in riceproducing countries, planthoppers in
large numbers cause considerable dam-
age by sucking sap from rice plants,
causing them to wilt and die. They also
transmit three viral diseases that stunt rice
plants and prevent grain formation.
“Planthopper outbreaks occur when
there is a breakdown in ‘ecological
resilience’ of a rice farm,” explains Dr.
K.L. Heong, an insect ecologist at IRRI.
“Beneficial predators such as spiders and
bugs that feed on planthoppers are part of
a natural system of ‘checks and balances’
that keeps planthopper populations below
outbreak levels,” he added. “When this
natural balance is disrupted, however,
planthopper outbreaks occur.”
Many beneficial insects that prey on
planthoppers are killed inadvertently
when insecticides are misused or are used
indiscriminately. Also, growing three rice
crops a year or using the same varieties
over a large area and for a long period can
lead to pest outbreaks due to the adaptation and buildup of pest populations.
The Action plan recommends two
major principles – first to enhance biodiversity and second to regulate the marketing and use of insecticides, including
the banning of certain outbreak-causing
insecticides in rice.
With IRRI’s support, just three months
ago, Thailand banned the use of two
insecticides in rice – abamectin and
cypermethrin – because they are known
to be major causes of planthopper outbreaks. Also, in March this year, the
Vietnamese province of An Giang started
Farmers have started adopting ecological engineering practices such as growing flowers
near rice paddies to nurture planthopper predators.
adopting ecological engineering practices
such as growing flowers in nearby paddies to nurture planthopper predators.
“It’s a first step and there’s a lot more
to go, but openness to change is nothing
new to Vietnam,” cited Dr. Heong.
The country, having seen dramatic
changes in its rice production over the
last 26 years, went from being a struggling rice importer to becoming a strong
rice exporter now by adopting a countrywide reform policy called “Doi Moi” in
the late 1980s. Doi Moi was the underlying force behind Vietnam’s rice success
today, and it literally means “change and
newness.”
Willingness to embrace change has
also been the reason behind the success
of two campaigns by IRRI and the Plant
Protection Department (PPD) of Vietnam
in 1994 and 2003 to better manage rice
crops and rice pests. “No Early Spray”
and “Three Gains, Three Reductions”
won several awards from different organizations and became renowned models
for participatory learning in agriculture.
“With the two leading rice-exporting
countries, Thailand and Vietnam, showing such leadership in better pest management, we remain optimistic that, in
the future, planthopper outbreaks will
lessen in their frequency and severity,”
Dr. Bouman concluded.
The international conference
Threats of Insecticide Misuse in Rice
Ecosystems – Exploring Options for
Mitigation, was held on 16 December
2011 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
41
26/01/2012 11:22:18
Phosphine-resistant grain insects eliminated
T
he application of commonly recommended management principles
has eradicated a strain of grain storage insects with strong phosphine resistance, located on a Western Australian farm,
according to the SeedQuest website (www.
seedquest.com).
The achievement – involving more than
three years of treatment and monitoring
followed by a final check of the site - was
made by Department of Agriculture and
Food (DAFWA) staff with support from
the Grains Research and Development
Corporation (GRDC).
It is believed to be the first time that
elimination of on-farm grain storage insects
with strong phosphine resistance has been
scientifically documented and confirmed
in Australia and possibly the world.
The strongly phosphine-resistant redrust flour beetles (RFB) were detected on a
farm near Wubin, in the Dalwallinu shire,
through monitoring by DAFWA, conducted with funding by the GRDC and the
Cooperative Research Centre for National
Plant Biosecurity (CRCNPB).
DAFWA grain storage specialist Chris
Newman, who provides information and
training to Western Australian growers under a GRDC funded grain storage
project, said the resistant population was
this year confirmed as eliminated after
recommended management practices were
applied and silos were sealed.
“The achievement demonstrates that
applying standard management principles
works, and by applying them growers will
control insects before they have a chance to
develop resistance in the first place.”
Mr Newman said the case of strong
resistance was one of only a handful that
had developed in WA within the last five
years. He added that the resistant strain
of RFB at Wubin was believed to have
developed independently on the farm after
the farmer used incorrect phosphine dosing practices to treat the grain, contained in
poorly sealed silos, over 11 years.
Mr Newman said many strongly resistant strains of insects could be eradicated
with label-rate phosphine fumigation, provided the storage facility was gas-tight.
“DAFWA staff took immediate and rigorous action, involving hygiene treatments to
remove resistant insect populations in and
around silos, and correct phosphine fumigation to eliminate resistance from within
42
the grain bulk. They visited the farm at
least twice a year to check on silo hygiene
and to ensure fumigations were done correctly,” he said.
DAFWA senior research officer Rob
Emery said the identification of the resistant
strain of RFB and its eradication showed
that growers’ money – through the GRDC
research levy – was being spent in a way
that benefited them directly.
“Our project is very applied in that
it is focussed on determining resistance
by whatever means possible, and then
doing something about it. Early detection
of resistance is one of the strengths of the
inspection process we have in WA – we
can track the rise of weak resistance and
make the grower aware of an emerging
problem. When strong resistance has been
detected we initiate a survey of the area to
ensure it hasn’t spread.”
Mr Emery said monitoring for resistance
in stored grain insects in WA was continuing. He commented that strong phosphine
resistance remained minimal in WA, unlike
the eastern states.
“WA farmers have worked really hard
for years to minimise phosphine resistance
and as a result there have only been a few
cases of strong resistance reported. This
gives our grain a unique edge, as it can be
marketed as free from pests and contact
chemicals.”
Mr Emery said research had shown
that strong phosphine resistance devel-
oped when the frequency of weak
resistance approached 80 per cent of
strains tested. “The frequency of weak
resistance across all species in WA
recently reached 45 per cent. However,
73 per cent of RFB are weakly resistant and therefore this species is at
the greatest risk of becoming strongly
resistant.”
Hygiene treatments used at the Wubin
farm to eradicate the resistant RFB population included:
 Pressure washing inside empty silos,
storage surrounds, handling equipment
and machinery;
 The application of contact chemical insecticide to kill insects in grain
residues at the base of silos, and the
removal of waste for burial;
 Treating clean, empty silos with diatomaceous earth protectant to prevent
reinfestation.
 Eradication of the insects, using phosphine, was ensured by:
 Silo maintenance including rubber seal
replacement on removable hatches and
permanent sealing of other gaps with
flexible waterproof sealant;
 Silo pressure testing to ensure an
extended fumigation period, verified by
gas monitoring.
More news from GRDC (Grains Research
& Development Corporation) can be found
at their website http://www.grdc.com.au
Red-rust flour beetles can be resistant to phosphine. Photo by Peggy Greb, courtesy of
USDA-ARS.
26/01/2012 11:22:21
Martignani_184x130_pag.pubbl 10-01-2012 9:34 Pagina 1
C
M
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CM
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CY CMY
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43
26/01/2012 11:22:42
Investment in plant protection with an initial copper deposit
Dr Terry Mabbett *
T
he impact and influence of copper
fungicides is large and as durable
as their deposits against the most
intense weathering pressures planet earth
has to offer. Copper fungicide has been at
th e forefront of plant disease control since
the establishment of copper’s activity as a
biocide in 1885.
Birth of the copper fungicide
Several supreme ironies surround discovery of copper as a highly effective broad
spectrum fungicide. Like many other major
discoveries, including Penicillin by Sir
Alexander Fleming, it was an accidental
milestone in science and technology. In the
late nineteenth century vineyard owners in
the Médoc region of southern France were
splashing grapevines alongside public footpaths with a concoction of copper sulphate
and slaked lime - CuS04.5H2O + Ca(OH)2.
The unsightly water-resistant deposits left
on the foliage and bunches deterred the
pilfering of grapes.
It was not only pilfering that the chemical complex subsequently named ‘Boullie
Bordelaise’ (Bordeaux mixture) was able to
stop. Alexis Millardet, Professor of Botany
in the Science Faculty at the University
of Bordeaux, noticed that grape vines
(Vitis) treated with ‘Bordeaux Mixture’
were largely free from downy mildew
(Plasmopara viticola), an all-consuming
disease of grape leaves and fruit bunches
that had recently arrived in the region. At
the same time Ulysse Gayon who was
Professor of Chemistry at Bordeaux studied
the mode of action and crop safety of this
novel fungicide treatment. From this single
astute observation and subsequent research
the chemical crop protection industry was
born (Millardet and Gayon, 1885).
Another supreme irony is that
Plasmopara viticola and other related
pathogens originally belonging to the
Class Oomycetes of the ‘Fungi’ have since
been re-classified within a group called
Chromoveolata (Chromista) in the ‘Algae’.
This move was not inappropriate because
following first use of Bordeaux mixture in
1885 Cu2+ ions (the active ionic principle
of all copper fungicides) demonstrated an
*Dr Terry Mabbett. E-mail: DrTerryMabbett@
btinternet.com
44
activity spectrum
way beyond the
fungi.
Copper containing biocides control bacterial and
algal plant pathogens,
epiphytic
growth comprising algae, lichens,
Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts),
Pteridophytes
(ferns) and bromeliads, and snails and Excellent retention of droplets following a cuprous oxide spray to
slugs (molluscs), as the waxy upper surface of Coffea arabica leaves. (Picture courtesy
well as true fungi Nordox)
such as Hemeila
vastatrix (coffee leaf rust) and fungal-like novel fungicide material for disease control
pathogens such as Plasmopara viticola on other crops. Prominent amongst these
and Phytophthora infestans (late blight of were late blight (Phytophthora infestans)
potato and tomato)
on potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tomato
Application technique has changed (Lycopersicon esculentum) in New Jersey
markedly since Alexis Millardet applied and Connecticut in the North Eastern
his first treatments using a heath broom United States and leaf rust (Hemeilia vasdipped into a bucket of Bordeaux mixture, tatrix) on coffee (Coffea) in Ceylon (now
although his original recipe appears to have Sri Lanka).
stood the test of time. G.F. Johnson writing
in 1935 commented how Millardet’s origi- Fifty years of Bordeaux
nal recommendations for relative propor- Judson F. Clark in a 1902 review of copper
tions of copper sulphate, slaked lime and compounds said: “Within recent years copwater had not changed materially for 50 per has become the most valued agent in
years (Johnson, 1935).
combating the ravages of plant diseases. Its
In the years following Millardet’s discov- importance from an economic standpoint
ery when Bordeaux mixture was essential- has attracted to its study an unusually large
ly still the only copper fungicide available number of investigators. As a result there
‘to play with’, laboratory research and field already is a very extensive literature on the
trials mushroomed as scientists applied this toxicology of copper compounds”, he said,
and hence the need for a review. This was
by no means the first review because preClose up on the surface of a brassica leaf
1896 research on Bordeaux mixture had
after spraying with cuprous oxide showing
already been covered by other authors in
the even distribution of particles (red-brown
the United States (Evans, 1896; Fairchild,
spots) of the initial deposit (Picture courtesy
1894; Swingle, 1896) as well as Hollrung
Nordox)
(1896) in Germany. During the following
decades scientists sought more efficient
ways of applying copper fungicides, while
conducting research to determine how well
spray droplets were retained by the target
crop plant.
First 50 years were pre-occupied with
Bordeaux mixture and other similar copper
sulphate/alkali concoctions like Burdgundy
mixture (copper sulphate plus sodium carbonate - Na2CO3). Without the addition of
alkali to form an insoluble complex copper
26/01/2012 11:22:43
Even distribution of cuprous oxide particles
(red-brown spots) comprising the initial
deposit on a waxy brassica leaf. Lack of
particle agglomeration along the veins and
leaf margin is due to the balanced amount
and proportion of surfactant in the spray
mixture. (Picture courtesy Nordox)
sulphate proved far too soluble for use as
a fungicide. It caused phytotoxic damage
to crop plants and was washed off into the
soil with the first shower of rain. Bordeaux
itself was the cause of much phytotoxic
damage and a considerable amount of
research documenting such crop damage,
and delving into reasons for its occurrence
and seeking ways of avoiding or minimising the problem, was already being conducted (Barker and Gimingham, 1914).
Horsfall, Magie and Suit (1938) demonstrated that Bordeaux injury to tomato
plants was related to unnatural closing of
stomatal pores on leaves due to weakening of the cuticle around the stomata,
caused by strong alkalinity of the mixture.
Bordeaux also caused a hardening of the
middle lamella that cements cells together
within the leaves and stunted the growth of
tomato plants. The authors guessed similar problems were occurring in potatoes
sprayed with Bordeaux but masked by the
hugely beneficial effects of Bordeaux in
controlling late blight.
Fixed cuprous oxide arrives
With the arrival of cuprous oxide (Cu2O) in
the 1930’ scientists were forced to re-assess
ideas and established knowledge on copper
fungicides. Cuprous oxide was the first of
the particulate fixed copper fungicide to be
used for plant disease control and so called
because the compound was composed of
discrete particles with the active copper
fixed (locked up) in the insoluble (spar-
ingly soluble) cuprous oxide. This heralded
a new era for copper fungicides through
enhanced efficacy and considerably less
risk of phytotoxic damage compared with
previous use of Bordeaux mixture.
Other fixed particulate copper fungicides including copper oxychloride, tribasic copper sulphate and cupric hydroxide
would follow. Field tests made in 1934,
1935 and 1936 in England, using control of
late blight of potato as a criterion, showed
that fungicidal powers were common to a
wide range of copper compounds, namely,
cuprous oxide, cupric oxide, cuprous cyanide, cuprous sulphite, cupric phosphate,
cupric ammonium silicate and copper
oxychloride (Marsh, Martin and Munson,
1937).
Roberts (1946) reviewing North
American research between 1936-1944
said: “Bordeaux mixture remains the
standard copper fungicide but others of the
so-called ‘insoluble’ group have come into
commercial use, chiefly as sprays and dusts
for truck crops.” Truck crops are fruits and
vegetables grown in large quantities and
trucked to market. They include tomato in
Florida and potato in New Jersey.
By 1955 fungicides were credited with
major achievements in assuring stable food
supplies. Copper fungicide seed treatments
(not covered in this article) had reduced the
incidence of seed borne diseases, such as
bunt, smut and blight in wheat, barley and
oats, to negligible levels with accompanying increases in cereal yields of 25 per cent
(Large, 1940) and were instrumental in this
overall achievement by fungicides.
Design and development of reduced
volume application techniques including oil-based ULV (ultra low volume)
spraying, starting in earnest in the 1980’s
presented yet another milestone in the
evolution of copper fungicides as prime
protectors of the world’s crops.
The following account traces early
research into the retention of copper fungicide sprays and how this impacted on the
development of commercial copper fungicides in the 100 years since 1885.
Copper is a protectant fungicide
Scientists knew instinctively from the
very start that copper fungicides were
controlling plant disease from the sparingly soluble deposit on the crop surface,
thus preventing fungal spore germination
and/or germ tube penetration into the leaf
or fruit. Unlike systemic fungicides that
would not arrive for another 100 years,
copper ions could not penetrate into plant
tissue to eradicate established infections.
This limitation was soon realised by
French scientists in Bordeaux working on vine downy mildew and Ceylon
where Marshall Ward was deciphering
the logistics of coffee leaf rust control
with copper fungicides.
Copper fungicides’ protectant properties presented all sorts of demands on and
requirements for their commercial use:
 Precise spray timing so that deposits
are on the crop surface before the
pathogen arrives
 Appropriate application techniques to
give good coverage of the entire crop
surface including undersides of leaves
and foliage deep inside the canopy
 Tenacious deposits that resist weathering including rainfall, wind and plant
growth movements
 A solubility/insolubility balance which
stems high initial loss of deposit by
rainfall while providing a Cu2+ release
profile which protects the leaf and the
wider plant through redistribution of
fungicide.
This in turn triggered research into all
aspects of spray retention from the fungicide formulation/application and crop
plant (leaf disposition and leaf surface)
perspectives. Overall requirement was
summed up succinctly by Horsfall, Marsh
and Martin (1937) who said: The field
performance of protective fungicides [like
copper oxides] is dependent upon (1)
factors determining the quantity (retention and tenacity) of material present
throughout the period of protection, and
(2) factors which determine the relative
fungicide value of the residue.
Other leading researchers writing in
the same year claimed: “The field efficiency of protective spray materials such
as Bordeaux mixture, which function
through the formation of a deposit and
which protects the foliage form disease
organisms, is partly determined by the
amount of deposit which persists upon the
foliage throughout the period of attack”
(Fajans and Martin, 1937).
45
26/01/2012 11:22:44
The initial deposit
Three successive processes control formation of initial spray deposits on target leaf
surfaces (Furmidge, 1962)
 Impaction and adhesion of spray droplets
 Build-up of retained spray liquid
 Deposition of fungicide from the
retained liquid
Initial deposit becomes the effective deposit
when all but the particles actually adhering
to the leaf sloughs off. The effective deposit becomes the residue after it is affected by
weathering and metabolic degradation. The
transient deposit may be effective while it
is present (Ebeling, 1963).
Good spray retention and subsequent
formation of a substantial and well distributed initial deposit is most difficult to
establish on waxy leaf surfaces such as
those of brassica crops. It is achieved by
incorporating the appropriate surfactants in
the fungicide product formulation and also
by adding surfactant to the spray mixture as
a spray adjuvant (see picture 2).
Spray liquid retention
Retention of spray liquid by plant surfaces
is a function of droplet size, surface tension
of the liquid and nature of the plant surface,
which interact to determine contact angle
between spray droplet and plant surface.
Maximum retention occurs from minimum
sized droplets impacting with negligible
velocity. Wind speed may affect retention
by increasing droplet velocity or causing
run-off by wind-induced plant movement.
Density, viscosity and volatility of the
spray liquid have little intrinsic effect on
droplet retention, especially with oil-based
sprays (Furmidge, 1962), although other
external factors relating to application technique and nature of the plant surface may
have considerable indirect effects through
interaction with the physical and chemical
properties of spray mixtures.
From a mathematician’s perspective
spray liquid retention proceeds as follows.
When a droplet impacts onto a leaf its
kinetic energy causes it to spread across the
leaf surface. In doing so the kinetic energy
is transferred to potential energy that is
stored in the interface [between droplet
and plant surface] due to surface tension.
As the droplet spreads it also loses energy
due to friction. The droplet reaches a maximum spread and then begins to recoil back
towards its original shape. If the energy
losses are sufficiently small the droplet will
reform and detach from the leaf surface. If
the losses are large enough then the droplet
recoil is insufficient to reform the droplet
and it will remain attached to the leaf
surface. Factors affecting and governing
this process are droplet size and velocity (which influence the kinetic energy),
surface tension of the droplet formulation,
advancing and receding droplet angles over
the surface, the wettability of the leaf surface, leaf surface roughness and the friction
coefficient (Mercer et al., 2007).
Large spray droplets can rebound or
roll from plant surfaces especially when
their surface tension is high and the leaf is
difficult to wet (Tollenaar, 1958; Courshee,
1967) due to, for instance, the presence of
a prominent wax bloom like that on grapefruit (Citrus) leaves. Droplets showing
such tendencies must be larger enough to
generate sufficient momentum to rebound
but not so large that they shatter on impact
(Courshee, 1967).
Furmidge (1962) showed that retention
is primarily governed by the magnitude of
Pictures 4 and 5 Comparative pictures of
the upper (picture 4) and lower (picture
5) surface of a cucurbit leaf showing how
depressed veins on the upper surface form
raised areas in between to exacerbate run
off, while the raised veins on the lower
surface create gullies in between which aids
spray retention.
46
26/01/2012 11:22:49
the dynamic advancing and receding angles
between the droplet and the plant surface,
by the degree of contact angle hysteresis
(difference between the two angles) and by
the surface tension of the spray liquid.
Linskens (1951) studied the dynamic
contact angles of water and leaf surfaces
as a quantitative measure of leaf surface
wettability within the limits of a 0° contact
angle for completely wettable surfaces and
an angle of 180° for non-wettable surfaces.
He found that species carrying wax deposits had contact angles exceeding 120° while
those not normally with wax deposits had
contact angles less than 80°.
Addition of surfactants as spray adjuvants, to reduce surface tension and contact
angles thus increasing the spreading and
wetting properties of spray formulations,
turned out to be a double edged sword as
far as spray liquid retention was concerned
(Fajans and Martin, 1937; Marsh, 1938;
Large, Beer and Patterson, 1946; Somers,
1957). Field spraying technique employed
during this time was invariably high volume (to and beyond the point of runoff). Use of spray adjuvants (surfactants
and emulsifiers) to increase wettability
by reducing the surface tension of sprays
could exacerbate losses from run-off and
add to already significant loss of spray
liquid and fungicide into the soil.
Fungicide spray applications not achieving good spray droplet retention and initial
deposit formation and distribution show a
tendency for the agglomeration of fungicide particles along the leaf veins and at
the leaf margin. This is most pronounced in
crops such as brassicas with very waxy and
therefore hydrophobic leaf surfaces. A balanced amount and proportion of surfactant
in the spray liquid will overcome this
problem and secure an even distribution of
initial deposit (see picture 3)
Plant surface on spray retention
Plant surface characteristics affecting
retention can be classified as macro or
micro roughness surface effects. Macro
roughness caused by prominent leaf midrib and veins enhances spray retention.
Highly contoured leaf surfaces such as
those of blackcurrant (Ribes) retain more
spray liquid than planar surfaced leaves
like those of rubber (Hevea). Leaf veins
tend to retain more spray liquid than the
rest of the leaf and spray retention shown
by banana leaves were highest at their margins, although this effect decreased with
age of leaf (Furmidge, 1962).
The lower (abaxial) surfaces of blackcurrant leaves, where prominent veins
form peaks, have a higher retention potential than the upper (adaxial) surfaces where
the veins form depressions (Furmidge,
1962). Pubescent (fine hairs) leaves of eggplant (Solanum melongena) held considerably more spray than the smooth leaves
of Capsicum pepper (Wilson and Hedden,
1964).
A comprehensive study on cucumber (Cucumis) leaves showed significant
effects of leaf vein profile and leaf hairiness
on the retention of cupric hydroxide spray.
There was a strong negative correlation
between volume of spray liquid retained
(per cm2) and increase in leaf size and
the accompanying decrease in hairiness.
Cucumber leaves become less intensely
hairy as they grow and expand because
virtually all leaf hairs are in place prior
to leaf emergence. This relationship held
true for both the adaxial and abaxial leaf
surfaces of cucumber. The raised profile of
abaxial leaf surface veins creates inter-vein
gulleys acting as spray catchment areas. In
stark contrast adaxial surface veins situated
in depressions form raised inter-vein areas
which are unable to retain as much spray
liquid (Mabbett and Phelps, 1985).
Picture 6 and 6A Brassica leaves (cabbage
shown here) are very waxy and inherently
difficult to wet.
47
26/01/2012 11:22:53
Plant surfaces possess a cuticle covered
by a wax deposit which reduces the retention of fungicide sprays (Schiferstein and
Loomis, 1956). Holloway (1969) considered micro roughness of the cuticle and its
waxy covering could affect contact angle
and therefore spray droplet retention and
that water repellency was determined by
the presence of superficial waxes and the
intrinsic hydrophobic nature of the leaf
itself.
Waxes isolated from leaves giving contact angles of less than 90° were usually
more hydrophobic than the leaf itself. On
most leaves showing contact angles greater
than 90° wax deposit was the dominant
factor governing water repellency, the isolated wax normally making at least a 60
per cent contribution to the contact angle
measured on the leaf surface.
Additional factors such as micro roughness, responsible for contact angles greater
than 110° on certain leaf surfaces, reside in
the wax layer (Holloway, 1969).
Leaves such as banana (Musa) and pea
(Pisum) with a high percentage of hydrocarbons in the wax were strongly water
repellent, whereas leaves such as apple
(Malus) and Hydrangea with less than
10 per cent hydrocarbon readily accepted
water droplets (Silva Fernandes, 1965).
The retention factor increased steadily
with age [of leaf] for adaxial surface of
banana leaves but decreased after reaching
a maximum for ageing Narcissus leaves
(Furmidge, 1962).
These changes in leaf surface character
with age, and their related effect on water
repellency and contact angle, are minimised on crops grown under temperature
and humidity conditions in glasshouses
(Furmidge, 1962).
Glasshouse crops are not subject to
external weathering which may modify the cuticle and wax layers in field
grown plants. Modification of leaf surface
waxes by field weathering was indicated
by Mueller, Carr and Loomis, 1954 who
showed how the concentration of wetting
agent that is required to give complete leaf
surface wetting decreases with weathering
of the surface wax.
Leaf surface properties affecting contact angle are subject to diurnal variation. Contact angles for leaf surfaces are
reduced during the hours of darkness
(Fogg, 1944).
References
Barker, B.T.P. and Gimingham, C.T. (1914)
The action of Bordeaux Mixture on Plants.
Annals of Applied Biology, 1(1):9-21
Clark, J.F. (1902) On the properties of some
copper compounds with special reference to
Bordeaux Mixture. Botanical Gazette, 33(1):
26-48.
Courshee, R.J. (1967) Application and use
of foliar fungicides, pages 239-286. In
Picture 7 Leaf hairs especially when distributed along the veins, as on the cucurbit leaf
shown here, were found to have a significant effect of spray retention and the size of the
initial deposit.
48
D.C. Torgeson (Editor) Fungicides, Vol. 1.
Academic Press, New York.
Dimond, A.E. and Horsfall, J.G. (1955) Fifty
years of fungicides. Annals of Applied
Biology, 42: 282-287.
Ebeling, W. (1963) Analysis of the basic processes involved in the deposition, degradation, persistence and effectiveness of pesticides. Residue Reviews 3:35-170
Evans, W.H. (1896) Copper sulphate and germination. Bull. No. 10. Veg. Phys. and Path.
U.S. Dept. Agric. 1896
Fairchild, D.G. (1894) Bordeaux mixture as a
fungicide. Bull. No. 6. Div. Path. U.S. Dept.
Agric. 1894
Fajans, F. and Martin, H. (1937) The incorporation of direct with protective insecticides
and fungicides II. The effects of spray supplements on the retention and tenacity of
protective deposits. Journal of Pomology
15(1):1-24.
Fogg, C.E. (1944) Diurnal fluctuation in a physical property of leaf cuticle. Nature London,
154:503-522
Fulton R.H. (1962), R.H. (1965) Low Volume
Spraying. Annual Review of Phytopathology
3:175-196.
Furmidge, C.G. L. (1962) Physico-chemical
studies on agricultural sprays. IV. The retention of spray liquids on leaf surfaces. Journal
of Science Food and Agriculture 13:127-140
Holloway, P.J. (1969) The effects of superficial
wax on leaf wettability. Annals of Applied
Biology 63:145-153.
Hollrung, M. (1899) Jahresbericht uber die
Neuerungen und Leistungen auf Gebiete
des Pflanzenschtzes. Berlin. 1898 and
1899.
Horsfall, J.G., Marsh, R.W. and Martin H.
(1937) Studies upon the copper fungicides:
The fungicidal value of the copper oxides.
Annals of Applied Biology, 24: 867-882
Horsfall, J.G., Magie, R.O. and Suit, R.F. (1938)
Bordeaux injury to tomatoes and its effect
on ripening. N.Y. Agric. Exp. Stn. Tech. Bull.
251 (1938):34
Johnson, G.F. (1935) The early history of copper fungicides. Agricultural History 9:67-79
Large, E.C., Beer, W.J. and Patterson, J.B.E.
(1946) Field trials of copper fungicide for the
control of potato blight II. Spray retention.
Annals of Applied Biology 33:54-63.
Linskens, H.F. (1951) Quantitative Bestimmung
der Benetzborkeit von Blattoberflächen.
Planta 38:591-600.
Mabbett, T.H. and Phelps, R.H. (1985) The
growth effects of cucumber on spray retention and initial deposition. Symposium
on Application and Biology. 1985 BCPC
Monogram No. 28. Page 279-287.
26/01/2012 11:22:56
Picture 8 Blackcurrant featured prominently
in the research into leaf surface macroroughness and its effect on spray droplet
retention and the formation of fungicide
deposits
Marsh, R.W. (1938) Some applications of
laboratory biological tests to the evaluation
of fungicides. Annals of Applied Biology
26:583-604.
Marsh, R.W., Martin, H. and Munson, R.G.
(1937) Studies upon the copper fungicides:
The distribution of fungicidal properties
among certain copper compounds. Annals
of Applied biology 24:853-866.
Mercer, G., Sweatman, W.L., Elvin, A. Caunce,
J., Fulford, G., Harper, S. and Pennifold, R.
(2007) Process Driven Models for Spray
retention by Plants. Proceedings of the
2006 Mathematics in Industry Study Group.
Edited by G.C. Wake. Massey University.
Pages 57-85.
Millardet, A. and Gayon, L.U. (1885) Traitment
du mildou par melange de sulphate de
cuivre et de chaux. Journal d’Agiculture
Pratique (Paris) 49:707-710.
Mueller L.E., Carr P.H. and Loomis, W.E.
(1954) The submicroscopic structure of
plant surfaces. American journal of Botany
41:593-600
Roberts, J.W. (1946) Recent developments in
Fungicides. I Spray materials – 1936-1944.
Botanical Review 12:538-547.
Schieferstein R.H. and Loomis, W.E. (1956)
Wax deposits on leaf surfaces. Plant
Physiology 31:240-247.
Silva Fernandes, A.M.S. (1965) Leaf wax
and water repellency. Pages 180-182. In
Long Ashton Agricultural and Horticultural
Research Station Annual Report for 1964.
University of Bristol, England.
Somers, B. (1957) Studies of spray deposits
III. Factors influencing the level of ‘run-off’.
Journal of Science Food and Agriculture
8:520-526.
Swingle, W.T. (1896) Bordeaux Mixture, its
chemistry, physical properties and toxic
effects on fungi and algae. Bull. No. 9. Veg.
Phys. and Path. U.S. Dept. Agric. 1896
Tollenaar, D. (1958) Phytophthora palmivora of
cocoa and its control. Netherlands Journal
of Agricultural Science 6:24-38.
Wilson, J.D. and Hedden, O.K. (1964) Effect of
spray gallonage and leaf character on deposition and retention of copper-containing
fungicides. Phytopathology 54:912-913
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24.10.2011 10:20:29
26/01/2012 11:22:59
FOCUS ON AGRICULTURE
New economic study shows 50-yearold herbicide still an economic driver
A
ccording to a new economic
study by Paul D Mitchell, associate professor, Department of
Agricultural and Applied Economics at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
the herbicide atrazine benefits US corn,
sorghum and sugar cane farmers
by up to $3.3 bn/y, thanks to
increased yield, decreased cost
and reduced soil erosion.
Mitchell presented the findings of his paper,
Economic
assessment of
the benefits of
chloro-s-triazine herbicides
to US corn, sorghum, and sugar cane
producers, at the 2011 North Central
Weed Science Society Annual Meeting
in Milwaukee.
Though it has been more than 50
years since the herbicide was first introduced, the continuing importance of
atrazine, along with simazine and propazine, to US agriculture and global
food supplies cannot be overstated.
Syngenta, the
principal
registrant for
atrazine, provided resources and support
for Mitchell’s
research.
Oxitec Ltd and Certis Europe B.V.
enter into research collaboration
O
xitec and Certis Europe have
entered into a research collaboration to develop, test and
review commercial opportunities for
Oxitec’s RIDL® technology on Tuta
absoluta, one of the most economically
damaging crop pests in Europe.
The focus of the research collaboration with Certis Europe is the devastating tomato pest T. absoluta. This lepidopteran pest was first detected in Spain
in 2006 and since then has spread rapidly across Southern Europe and North
Africa. Originating in South America, it
has now been reported in Italy, France,
Malta, UK, Greece, Switzerland,
Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,
Libya and Albania.
Tuta absoluta causes serious damage to open and protected tomato crops
and can also attack other species such
as aubergine and potato, with losses
typically between 50-100%. Effective
control is difficult to achieve as the larvae of T. absoluta mine the leaves and
burrow in to the fruit.
Control measures rely heavily on
chemical pesticides, however, the use
of multiple treatments is required for
satisfactory levels of control, which
is neither desirable, nor economic and
0
which has led to the development of
strains resistant to some more widely
used products.
Oxitec and Certis Europe report significant progress in the Tuta project.
Oxitec have achieved the critical first
step of developing an off-plant diet.
Work is now underway to develop the
transgenic process in Tuta to generate RIDL strains with potential for
future trials. Certis Europe is evaluating options for scale-up production at
their facilities in the UK and with their
collaborators in North Africa. Certis
will then be preparing for field evaluation of the RIDL® Tuta, subject to the
necessary regulatory approvals in the
relevant countries.
Introduction of this technology will
represent a major advance in the control
of this important pest offering significant benefits for growers and consumers
alike. The technology is fully compatible with existing IPM and insecticide
resistance management strategies, and
will support countries in their efforts
to exclude damaging non-indigenous
species, thereby supporting local producers.
For more information, go to www.
certiseurope.com and www.oxitec.com
Bayer accelerating
WHO Class I insecticide
formulation phase out
D
uring International Green
Week 2012 in Berlin,
Germany, Dr. Joachim
Schneider, Senior Vice President
Growth & Strategy for Bayer
CropScience, affirmed the company’s
commitment to addressing the challenges posed by population growth,
the growing demand for food, feed
and renewable raw materials, limited
natural resources and climate change.
At high-level business panels
at the Global Forum for Food and
Agriculture (GFFA) and the AGCO
Africa Summit held this week
in Berlin as part of International
Green Week, Dr. Schneider outlined
three critical areas where Bayer
CropScience is advancing initiatives
to drive impact, including:
 Supporting farmers to increase
the agricultural productivity of
the world’s most important staple
crops - wheat and rice
 Closing the gap for small-scale
farmers in Africa and beyond
through introduction of sustainable modern technologies
 Accelerating the phase-out of
all remaining WHO Class I
insecticide formulations by the
end of 2012, as announced in
September 2011
Crop protection innovations are an
important prerequisite for the sustainable development of agriculture.
Bayer CropScience’s product portfolio is constantly being rejuvenated
through the company’s research and
development efforts so that it meets
the needs of customers and fulfills the
requirements imposed by changing
cultivation and market conditions.
As part of its ongoing portfolio
optimization efforts, the company
is accelerating the phase-out of all
remaining WHO Class I insecticide
formulations by the end of 2012.
A list of WHO pesticides can be
found in pdf format at the website:
www.who.int/ipcs/publications/
pesticides_hazard_rev_3.pdf
26/01/2012 11:23:00
Decoding corn defenses for improved pest resistance
A
clearer picture of corn’s biochemical responses to insect
and fungal attacks is emerging, thanks to U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) studies in
Gainesville, Fla.
On one front, researchers identified defensive compounds, known as
zealexins and kauralexins, which rapidly accumulate at fungal infection
sites, impeding the microbes’ continued spread.
On another front, the researchers
discovered a new protein signal in
corn, called ZmPep1, which alerts the
plant to fungal intruders and helps
mobilize a timely counterattack.
Taken together, these discoveries
add significantly to the existing body
of knowledge on corn’s stress-coping mechanisms, and set the stage for
novel approaches to improving the
grain crop’s insect and disease resistance
The findings were recently reported
in the journals Plant Physiology and The
Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences by Alisa Huffaker and
colleagues. They are with the USDA
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Center for Medical, Agricultural and
Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville.
They worked on the research with colleagues at the University of Florida
(UF). ARS is USDA’s principal intramural scientific research agency.
Zealexins and kauralexins are
derived from volatile organic compound precursors known as sesquiterpenes and diterpenes. Terpenes have
been widely studied in plants, including crops such as cotton and tomatoes.
However, many scientists have focused
on the terpenes’ production and func-
Plant physiologist Eric Schmelz (right), postdoctoral chemist Fatma Kaplan and a team of
other ARS researchers have discovered new compounds that corn uses to defend against
insect and fungal attack.
tion in response to insect-leaf feeding,
rather than on what happens following stalk attack, according to Eric
Schmelz.
The ARS scientists teamed with
UF chemist James Rocca to identify
the compounds using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging techniques. In
experiments, physiologically relevant
amounts of the newly discovered kauralexin class of phytoalexins inhibited
the growth of anthracnose stalk rot
(Colletotrichum graminicola) by 90
percent. Similarly, zealexins inhibited
the growth of the aflatoxin-producing fungus Aspergillus flavus by 80
percent.
These maize pathogens cause significant yield loss and fungal-derived
toxin contamination issues for U.S.
farmers.
Lab experiments also showed that
European corn borer larvae avoided
feeding on stalk tissues where kauralexins had accumulated.
51
26/01/2012 11:23:02
Research reveals simple storage pesticides
R
esearch conducted to come up
with simple, cheap and environmental friendly ways of controlling storage pests is revealing encouraging results from Neem and Muuluka.
The research falls under Malawi’s
Development Partnership in Higher
Education (DelPHE) Botanical Project
and is currently in its first of the three
seasons of trial, according to Project
Coordinator John Kamanula.
“After five months, only four percent
of maize treated with Azadirachta indica (Neem) seed kernels was damaged
by storage pests while 9 percent of that
treated with Securidaca longepedunculata (Muuluka) was damaged,” said
Kamanula.
“After seven months, which is
enough period to move to another
harvest, only 16 percent of the maize
treated with the two pesticides was
damaged by storage pests.”
He mentioned that, unlike what
farmers said at the beginning of the
research, Tephrosia vogelli (Mtetezga
or Gulinga) recorded the poorest
results as after five months 38 percent
of maize treated with the pesticide was
damaged by storage pests.
This was even worse than the amount
of maize from an untreated lot that was
damaged by storage pests during the
same period (36 percent) and 79 percent
of the maize treated with the pesticide
had been damaged after seven months.
During the event, farmers drawn
from Ntchenachena and Champhira
extension planning areas (EPAs) showcased their skills on how they were
using the simple pesticides.
“For every 5 kilogrammes of maize,
we apply 100 grams of powdered
Neem seed kernels, and we open to
see if the maize has been attacked
once in a month,” said Nicholas Jere of
Titukulane Club during a presentation
on the findings.
The research is conducted by the
Department of Chemistry at Mzuzu
University in partnership with the
United Kingdom’s University of
Tephrosia vogelli
Greenwich and the Department of
Agriculture Research in the Ministry
of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water
Development.
Azadirachta indica (neem) leaves and flowers. Courtesy Forest & Kim Starr (www.hear.org/starr/)
52
26/01/2012 11:23:07
Warning on Australian weed resistance
T
he resistance of weeds in
Australia to the most widely
used herbicide in agriculture has
scientists worried that it is only a matter of time before New Zealand has to
deal with the same problem, according
to Tim Cronshaw from Fairfax News /
stuff.co.nz
Australia has six weeds resistant to
glyphosate, often sold under the trade
name Round-Up, and their growth over
thousands of hectares of uneconomic
farmland is forcing farmers to walk off
some properties. Scientists have found
65 per cent of the 368 resistant weed
populations have evolved in conditions
similar to New Zealand. Only 35 per
cent of them occurred in cropping and
the rest were in roadsides, along fence
lines or in horticultural tree crops.
AgResearch (http://www.agresearch.
co.nz) senior scientist Trevor James
said farmers needed to take the resistance problem seriously as it would be
found in New Zealand “sooner or later”
because there was already some resistance to other chemicals. “It’s a huge
threat in Australia, next to salination in
their cropping. We thought it was from
the different cropping practices that created the problem, but 65 per cent of the
resistant weeds are caused by practices
duplicated in New Zealand on our fence
lines and roadsides.”
He said the resistance developed
after repeated applications of the same
chemical, and every so often a weed
would have a “spontaneous mutation”.
If the mutation was allowed to grow to
a decent-sized population, a large problem would be created.
Farmers are being advised to watch
for small patches of green or plant survivors in sprayed areas and along roadsides and fence lines where glyphosate
is regularly used.
James said the way to prevent the
problem was to rotate chemicals and use
different modes of operation.
New Zealand farmers had been told
for the past 15 years to rotate their
chemicals and some were better than
others at following this advice. Those
less diligent treated it as tomorrow’s
problem, he said. “[Glyphosate] is a
silver bullet with a few side-effects. We
have to learn to shoot the silver bullet
effectively.”
New Zealand had dealt with weed
resistance to different chemicals since
the 1980s, but glyphosate resistance
was a larger threat because it would
affect a wider range of people, he
said. Of the resistant grasses and
broadleaf weeds in Australia, only
one is not found in New Zealand.
Fleabane is one of the more common
weeds and causes concern because
it has a wind-borne seed and could
spread easily.
In addition, the second edition of
the Undermining Weeds newsletter
is out now, available as an on-line
flipbook or as a PDF. Undermining
Weeds is a programme of scientific research aimed at improving the
management of weeds in the pastoral
and forestry sectors. It is funded
jointly by the Ministry of Science and
Innovation, local authorities and a
wide range of industry organisations
from both sectors.
To access the document, visit the
AgReseach website (above), or go to:
http://www.agresearch.co.nz/publications/undermining-weeds/november2011/november2011/default.html
Farmers are being advised to watch for small patches of green or plant survivors in sprayed areas where glyphosate is regularly used.
53
26/01/2012 11:23:09
Tall fescue helps protect peach trees from nematodes
P
lanting tall fescue grass as a
ground cover in peach orchards
helps protect peach trees from
nematodes that attack tree roots, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) scientists.
In a study published in the Journal
of Nematology, Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) plant pathologists Andy
Nyczepir at the Southeastern Fruit
and Tree Nut Research Laboratory in
Byron, Georgia, and Susan Meyer at the
Nematology Laboratory in Beltsville,
Maryland, tested several tall fescue varieties to find out if they could thwart four
troublesome root-knot nematode species-Meloidogyne incognita, M. hapla,
M. javanica, and M. arenaria.
In the study, Nyczepir and Meyer
found that a commercial tall fescue,
MaxQ, prevented M. incognita and M.
hapla from reproducing. M. javanica
has a low level of reproduction on
MaxQ, but M. arenaria can reproduce
on it.
Traditionally, growers have fumigated peach orchard soils prior to
planting and then used a nematoderesistant rootstock. But in recent years,
growers have faced tough times that
have made it difficult to afford preplant fumigants, such as Telone II or
Vapam. Many growers also have difficulty fumigating at the recommended
time of year because of conflicts with
managing other crops.
In Georgia, rotation with coastal
Bermuda grass, which can also be harvested for hay, is recommended for control of root-knot nematode. According
to Nyczepir, their studies show that
MaxQ may have potential as a preplant
control strategy for M. incognita and M.
hapla in southeastern and northeastern
areas of the United States. Using this
tall fescue as a preplant cover crop treat-
Meloidogyne incognita
ment may allow growers to reduce the
use of chemical nematicides.
Preliminary data from the team’s
field trials using MaxQ as a preplant
cover crop have so far found that peach
trees planted after the cover crop are
larger than those planted in soil that is
not fumigated.
Read more about this research in
the November/December 2011 issue of
Agricultural Research magazine.
Plant pathologist Andy Nyczepir studies tree height data in a peach tree establishment plot. Photo by Merry Bacon.
54
26/01/2012 11:23:13
focus on FORESTRY
Agency uses new way to find emerald ash borer
T
he Minnesota Department of
Agriculture (MDA) has teamed
up with five metro area cities,
the University of Minnesota and the
U.S. Forest Service to better detect
new infestations of emerald ash borer
(EAB, Agrilus planipennis). Over
the next three years researchers will
conduct a study where they collect
branches from 300 trees in St. Paul,
Minneapolis, Lauderdale, Falcon
Heights and Roseville. The area is centered on the first confirmed find of EAB
in Minnesota in May 2009, northwest
of Highway 280 and University Ave. in
St. Paul.
The method, known as branch sampling, will allow scientists to collect
a total of 1,800 branches from the
selected trees over the period of the
study. The harvested branches will be
examined for EAB and signs of stingless wasps that were released in the area
to combat emerald ash borer.
Branch sampling is a new approach
when it comes to searching for EAB.
Currently, scientists do visual checks
of ash trees looking for signs of the
insect and use purple traps to detect
emerald ash borer in counties previously thought to be free of EAB. Branch
sampling provides a more sensitive
measure than the visual evaluation and
the purple traps, but due to the more
intensive labour it is only appropriate
in some situations. This new method
has been found 75 percent effective at
finding EAB, and will be an addition to
the tools already used for EAB detection in Minnesota.
“The main benefit of branch sampling will be improving detection
rates on low-level infestations,” said
MDA Entomologist Mark Abrahamson.
“Identifying areas where EAB is present
is the first step in taking action to suppress the population growth and spread
of this insect. Incorporating branch
sampling into our work will allow for
better overall management of action by
the state and affected cities.”
The branch sampling has already
found an EAB infested tree that appeared
healthy in the Highway 280/Como
Avenue area of St. Paul, less than one
mile from the state’s original EAB find.
Efforts will be made to slow the spread
of EAB in this newly infested area.
The branch sampling study is being
funded by a grant from the Minnesota
Environment and Natural Resources
Trust Fund as recommended by
Legislative-Citizen Commission on
Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). The
grant money is also being used to conduct several other studies focused on
EAB in Minnesota.
EAB is one of America’s most
destructive tree pests. Its larvae kill ash
trees by tunneling into the wood and
feeding on the tree’s nutrients. Since
its accidental introduction into North
America, EAB has killed tens of millions of ash trees in 15 states.
The metallic-green adult beetles are a
half-inch long, and are active from May
to September. Infestation signs include
one-eighth inch, D-shaped exit holes in
ash tree bark and winding tunnels under
the bark. The biggest risk of spreading
EAB comes from people unknowingly
moving firewood or other ash products
harbouring larvae.
Since the first discovery of the insect
in 2009, EAB has been confirmed in a
number of areas around St. Paul, and
Minneapolis. A quarantine area has been
set up that bars people from moving out
of the affected county any items potentially infested with EAB. Items subject
to the quarantine include firewood, live
ash trees, ash limbs and branches, ash
logs, and untreated ash lumber. A full
description can be found online at www.
mda.state.mn.us/plants/pestmanagement/eab/eabquarantine.aspx
55
26/01/2012 11:23:22
focus on FORESTRY
Site factors and
management influence
short-term host resistance
to spruce budworm
A
new study by Alvaro Fuentealba and Éric Bauce
(Pest Management Science, 68: 245–253. doi:
10.1002/ps.2253) considers the interactions
between thinning and soil drainage classes on the resistance of balsam fir (Abies balsamea), white spruce,
(Picea glauca) and black spruce, (P. mariana) to spruce
budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana defoliation one
year after treatment.
To estimate host tree resistance, foliage production
and larval foliage consumption were determined to generate an index of resistance quantifying the amount of
residual foliage available for photosynthesis after insect
defoliation.
The research showed that significant interactions
on tree resistance and foliage chemistry were detected
between thinning and soil drainage in balsam fir. The
drainage class affected spruce budworm performance,
foliar chemistry and balsam fir resistance to spruce budworm, whereas no effect was found in white spruce.
It was found that thinning had a significant effect on
the foliar chemistry of balsam fir and white spruce, but
no effect on black spruce.
The study concluded that thinning reduced balsam fir
resistance to spruce budworm defoliation. This response
is due to increased defoliation linked to reduction in
concentrations of certain monoterpenes, and a decrease
in foliage production, except on hydric drainage, demonstrating the importance of drainage class to tree resistance.
The results suggest that the use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) might be required when conducting stand
thinning during spruce budworm outbreaks.
International Pest Control
International Pest Control is an independent, bi-monthly
magazine now in it’s 54th year of publication. It is the
leading magazine in the world dealing with all aspects of
pest prevention and pest eradication.
Because pests recognise no national boundaries,
these problems are approached increasingly from an
international perspective.
IPC provides authoritative reviews of pest control
developments worldwide, with news, articles, reviews,
features and comments. It is published in the interest
of everyone concerned with the control of infestation of
all types - in agriculture; in food manufacturing, storage
and distribution; in domestic, commercial and industrial
premises.
IPC also provides information on control and protection
against various diseases transmitted by insects.
International Pest Control has regular sections featuring
developments in pest control:





Focus on Public Health
Focus on Agriculture
Focus on Amenity Horticulture
Focus on Forestry
In addition, it is anticipated that the following areas of
research and interest will be featured:
Mar/Apr 2012 - Pesticide Resistance / GM Crops / Turf
Management / Pest control in the Food Industry
May/Jun 2012 - Biopesticides / Small Scale Equipment /
Glasshouse Pests / Peridomestic Pests
Jul/Aug 2012 - Bed bugs / Fumigation/Fogging / Termite
Control / Vector Management
Spruce budworm Choristoneura fumiferana
Sep/Oct 2012 - Biotechnology/GM / Application/Spraying /
Update on Generic pesticides / Fungicides
Nov/Dec 2012 - Rodents / Timber Pests / IPM / Vector
Control
We are always interested in news items, quality research
papers and new developments in application and control.
Please contact us for publication of articles, or for advertising
information: [email protected]
If you would like to subscribe to International Pest
Control please see the subscription form on page 62.
56
26/01/2012 11:23:23
BOOKS
BOOKS
The UK Pesticide Guide 2012
ISBN 978 1 780640 10 5 (Book) c.780pp
Published: January 2012
T
he latest edition of The UK
Pesticide Guide is now in stock
and is a “must-have” reference
book for anyone using, or advising on,
pesticide products in the UK market.
Since EC Regulation 1107/2009
came into force in June 2011 changes
to pesticide approvals are now in place
and must be complied with. The launch
of The UK Pesticide Guide 2012 is
therefore a timely reminder to pesticide
Integrated Pest Management for
Collections
Proceedings of 2011: A Pest Odyssey,
10 Years Later. Edited by Peter Winsor
et al. Hardback, 332pp, 178 illustrations, Includes disk with PDF files of
the book. Pub Date March 2012. Price
£55.00 ISBN 978-1-84802-114-3
users of the products that can be legally used. It will also help with some
prudent planning for the forthcoming
spray season.
“This year’s guide shows that many
existing products have now been issued
with revised expiry dates and some,
which were due to expire, have now
been granted extensions. This is all
good news for farmers and growers,”
says Mr Martin Lainsbury, editor of
The UK Pesticide Guide. “However,
on the downside, a number of products
have been lost so this edition will identify what products can still be legally
used and what must be safely disposed
of from pesticide stores.”
This latest edition includes a listing of Products Also Registered
(PAR) – as of midOctober 2011
when the book
went to press –
this makes search
queries and PAR
identification quick
and easy. There are
also hundreds of new
SOLAs – essential for
the protection of less
mainstream crops, the
introduction of a variety specific herbicide in
oilseed rape and a number of new
active ingredients and mixtures. Each
active ingredient entry has a classification on its mode of action – which is
important for resistance management.
And for people who are concerned
with transporting pesticides there is
valuable information provided on the
UN Numbers, Transport Code and
Packaging Group – vital for Emergency
Services faced with a pesticide emergency.
BASIS members can also earn CPD
points when purchasing the book (2
CPD points).
BCPC and CABI are the joint publishers of The UK Pesticide Guide 2012.
The price has been held for 2012
and costs £44.50. Copies are
now available from: BCPC
Publications Sales, 7 Omni
Business Centre, Omega
Park, Alton, Hampshire,
GU34 2QD UK. Tel:
+44 (0) 1420 593 200
Email: publications@
bcpc.org. Credit cards
are accepted. Secure
orders can also be
placed online from
the BCPC website
on www.bcpc.org/
bookshop.
it is a significant and cost-effective element of good collections management.
2011: A Pest Odyssey, 10 years later
describes examples of how the IPM
approach has been adopted by large
and small institutions around the world,
and highlights the many lessons learned
along the way. Principal among these
is never to become complacent and
tied down to routine processes. Another
important lesson is the need to ensure
colleagues understand and are involved
with the process of pest management.
There is also a need to understand the
wider implications of any pest control activity, for example the effect of
chemical treatments on DNA.
Coming out of the second Pest Odyssey
conference, this book will promote wider
understanding and implementation of
IPM as an integral part of any collection
management programme. The organisers
and editorial team hope that everyone
involved with the care of cultural heritage
collections and buildings will find something of interest and value in this work.
I
ntegrated pest management (IPM)
is not a static approach but one that
is constantly evolving. Mass international travel, climate change and other
factors contribute to the spread of new
pests, and the pests themselves are constantly seeking out weaknesses in our
defences.
An understanding of the threats pests
pose to collections and the necessity for
a systematic approach to combat them
is now firmly embedded in the work of
collection care practitioners. In addition, the trustees and sponsoring bodies
of collecting institutions recognise that
English
Heritage,
Publishing
Department. Email: [email protected] www.english-heritage.org.uk. Telephone +44 (0)1793
414504.
57
26/01/2012 11:23:26
INDEX VOLUME 53 – 2011
International Pest Control index 2011
A
A better test for a potato pest
(5) 266
A simple and efficient tool for trapping gravid
Anopheles at breeding sites
(4) 204
Acceptability of Requiem bait by multiple species
of subterranean termites
(1) 38
Additional evidence links pesticides and diabetes (5) 242
Aerial treatment of Farallones mice spurs debate (3) 138
Agricultural pest management program
efficiency challenged
(6) 341
Airgun offence to come into force
(1) 15
Alternatives eyed for methyl bromide
(2) 101
AMCA annual meeting highlights the president’s
malaria initiative
(3) 142
Amenity turf weeds in South Australia
(1) 52
America may shift it’s policy on genetically
modified crops
(1) 46
Analysis of Rabies in China: transmission
dynamics and control
(4) 213
Animals being poisoned by burglars
(4) 180
Anti-pesticide ‘camps’ should be the ones
accused of lower IQs
(3) 134
Approval for FMC Beleaf insecticide
(2) 106
Assessment of vector/host contact: comparison
of traps for Culicoides
(4) 201
Australia completed review of dichlorvos
(3) 137
Australia seeks weed solutions for new rural industries(4) 227
B
Babolna Bio – quality at the heart of Europe
(6) 306
Badger cukll heads for further consultation
(5) 238
BASF acknowledges three new products will
arrive in 2012 (4) 190
BASF’s crop protection arm to sell directly to
Middle East, Africa
(3) 163
BASF details research results of its latest
innovation, Xemium fungicide
(3) 164
Battling the weevils
(2) 114
Bayer adapts its strategy and portfolio
(6) 303
Bayer introduces Nortica
(3) 170
Bayer CropScience introduces Poncho/VOVITO
on soybean and cotton
(4) 226
Bayer CropScience invests $20 million in new
bioscience greenhouse
(2) 71
Bayer CropScience offer full scholarship with
the University of California
(4) 200
Bayer CropScience to grant exclusive rights to
biocidal fungicide
(6) 342
Bayer CropScience to reduce carbamate production (1) 8
BCPC welcomes comparative assessment of
crop protection products
(2) 74
Bed bug population dynamics – why early
detection is so important
(1) 43
Bed bug research: prevention and innovation
(1) 34
Bed bugs as vectors for drug-resistant bacteria
(3) 150
58
Bed bugs: increase, resurgence, epidemic or
pandemic?
(1) 22
Bee antibiotic may harm not help
(6) 324
Beekeepers outcry at association’s endorsement
of insecticides
(1) 4
‘Beyond agriculture’ – a new concept in China
(3) 158
Billions of insects wiped out on Dutch roads
(4) 180
Biology and management of thrips in cotton seedlings (5) 266
Birds killed by banned pesticide
(2) 104
BPCA – where we’re heading
(2) 73
Brazil bans methamidophos
(1) 51
Brazil’s CTNBio approves cotton with
TwinLink technology from Bayer (2) 108
British couple allegedly killed by bed bug spray
on holiday
(3) 124
Bugs biting back?
(1) 9
C
Cats pass disease on to wildlife, even in remote
areas
(3) 147
CDC reports one in six get sick from foodborne
illnesses each year
(1) 6
CEPA sets the strategy for the future
(2) 78
Certis introduces Bug-N-Sluggo in USA
(3) 163
Chemical control for pigeons?
(1) 9
Choosing a pest control contractor – a food
industry perspective
(2) 79
China to cut down 20% pesticide usage by 2015
(4) 226
Cockroach allergens can persist 9 months after
extermination of population
(4) 214
Cockroaches – the wise adversary?
(6) 309
ConExPest and Europest – a perfect match
(4) 202
Control of exotic mosquitoes in the Netherlands
(3) 152
CropWorld Global 2011
(6) 326
Cuprous oxide, the fungicide that ‘fits all’ for citrus (5) 272
D
Decline in native birds leads to fear of ‘silent’ forests (1) 56
DEFRA urged to keep robust UK pesticide controls (2) 70
Developing biocontrols to contain a voracious pest (3) 171
Development of M. anisopliae + B. bassiana,
control malaria mosquitoes (2) 85
Diamondback moth host-parasite interaction
unravelled
(5) 278
Discovery of Bt toxin from GM crops in
human blood – a threat to health?
(3) 126
Dismate PE – management of food moth by
confusion
(1) 32
Dismate PE – safe food moths control system
based on mating disruption
(6) 338
Dow AgroSciences unveils name of herbicide
component
(5) 271
Downing Street on alert for head lice
(1) 16
Durability associated efficacy of long-lasting
insecticidal nets (6) 310
26/01/2012 11:23:27
E
Economic downturn results in tick-borne disease
upsurge
Economic impacts of non-native forest insects
in the continental US
Education, new products and cutting edge
technology, PestWorld 2011
Effect of IGRs, temp. and overwintering on
larvae of pistachio borer
Egyptian tech turns rice straw into paper and
insecticide
11th National Rodent Survey published
Emerging technologies for control of A. aegypti
and A. albopictus
Endothall helping in the fight against invasive
aquatic weeds
Entering the pest control lobby
Environmentalists call on EPA to ban herbicide
atrazine
EPA extends comment period of sulfuryl fluoride
phase-out issue
EPA extends comment period on nanoscale
materials in pesticide products
EPA gives BASF full registration of new fungicide
EPA grants temporary pesticide use for stink bug
emergency
EPA releases toxicity forecaster database
EPIBLOC: toxicant-sterilant for rodent control
ERMA releases decision on trichlorfon
EU move to ban endosulfan to benefit European
crop protection industry
EU shuns Kenya fresh produce on safety concerns
European Bed bug Code of Practice launched
European blood-sucking tick hits UK
European Code of Practice to be launched for
the management of bed bugs
European Committee votes in favour of dazomet
European Mosquito Control Association meets
in Budapest
European pest management service standard off to
a positive start
European pest management standard continues to
progress
Evaluation of catmint oil as repellent for flour
beetles
Event seeks to strengthen minor crop protection
Experts sat effort to beat malaria may backfire
Exposure to pesticides in the womb linked to
learning disabilities
(2) 84
(6) 348
(6) 299
(3) 162
(6) 317
(2) 68
(6) 318
(3) 163
(6) 298
(3) 128
(3) 134
(4) 190
(1) 48
(4) 189
(4) 195
(5) 252
(3) 137
(2) 72
(6) 292
(4) 182
(2) 87
(1) 42
(2) 105
(6) 323
(1) 12
(4) 194
(6) 296
(5) 246
(1) 30
(2) 69
F
Fake pesticide trade grows in Europe
FAOPMA 2011 – true IPM for a greener
environment
Fargo unveils two biopesticides
Feds approve Monsanto herbicide-resistant crops
(5) 248
(6) 314
(3) 166
(2) 106
Fewer aphids in organic crop fields
50 years of cereal leaf beetle management research
Fight against fatal tree disease enters critical next
phase
‘Fire Gel’ protects beneficial nematodes from sun
First batch of timber from infected Japanese
larch in Wales sold
First of its kind pesticide air monitoring
First report in Italy of a potential exotic mosquito
vector of arboviruses
Flower power gives caterpillars the blues
Flying insect control and food safety
Focus on forests
Food outlets to get new hygiene ratings
Fox shoots man
‘Freaky mouse’ defeats common poison
Free fumigant management tool
Fruit fly scientists in race against time
Fungal dandelion killer test
Fungi could be alternative to methyl bromide
Fungus from California suspected of killing
cypress trees worldwide
(4) 221
(6) 343
(4) 228
(2) 105
(2) 118
(2) 108
(6) 308
(5) 267
(2) 76
(1) 57
(1) 15
(1) 12
(5) 240
(4) 181
(4) 224
(5) 284
(6) 333
(5) 285
G
Getting closer to a better biocontrol for garden pests(3) 168
Getting the most from crops in the field and at the
market
(2) 102
Global crop protection chemicals market expected
to reach $60bn by 2016
(6) 330
Global growth in golf courses looks to China
(2) 113
GM mosquitoes bred to tackle dengue fever
(6) 312
Growing adoption of GM crops drives glyphosate
market
(6) 302
H
Health activists call for full disclosure on pesticide
labels
(6) 296
Herbicide use in Africa could quadruple yields
(3) 166
Hidden elm population may hold genes to
combat Dutch elm disease
(3) 172
Honey bees can tolerate some synthetic pesticides (5) 244
Horticultural sector approves pesticides consultation(1) 50
I
ICUP 2011, Outo Preto, Brazil
(5) 258
Illness associated with exposure to methyl bromide (4) 181
India: Elephant deaths spark call for pesticide ban (1) 56
India’s supreme court permits export of 1000 tonnes
of endosulfan
(6) 294
India’s top court orders ban on pesticide
(3) 141
Industry raises pesticide loss concerns
(5) 189
Insect discovery could lead to new pesticides
(6) 310
Insect pheromone-based technologies – a potential
alternative
(2) 94
59
26/01/2012 11:23:27
Insecticide resistance and the future of malaria
control in Zambia
(6) 313
Insecticide resistance in mosquitoes – Ceara, Brazil (1) 18
Insecticide susceptibility of A. egypti and
A. albopictus in Central Africa
(3) 153
Investigation has lessons for agronomists and farmers (2) 104
J
Junagadh Agricutural University to launch two
biopesticides
Juvenile insect’s hormone action could help fine
tune pesticides
(3) 167
(1) 19
K
‘Killer spices’ fatal to insect pests
(6) 340
Killing glyphosate-resistant weeds with… glyphosate (5) 264
Killing pests by disrupting hibernation
(6) 344
L
Landscape change increases insecticide use in US
Midwest
LifeNet mosquito nets receive interim
recommendation from WHO
(5) 254
(3) 130
M
Magnetic insect control – novel application:
specialist magnetic powders
(1) 25
Major breakthrough on how viruses infect plants (5) 268
Media hysteria, lack of knowledge or simply the
next challenge?
(5) 253
Micron WeedSwiper conservation action in South
Wales
(5) 250
Microorganisms such as Fusarium travel through air(5) 279
Mitchell sets out Britain’s plan to tackle malaria
(1) 7
Morgellon’s syndrome and delusions of parasitosis (4) 212
Mosquitoes ‘disappearing’ in some parts of Africa (5) 256
Moss in turf and on hard surfaces
(2) 110
Mustard as a fumigant ahead of beet
(4) 222
N
National Bed bug Forum and best management
practices
National Canine Conference
Natural tick control tested
Nature’s answer to deadly tree pest is paying off
Neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid causes
outbreaks of spider mites
New approach to bird problems New articles highlight the science behind response
to H1N1 pandemic
New company new technology – YPIL Pest
Elimination products
New draft Biocidal Products Regulation published
New framework ensure swift felling of infected trees
New fungicide could curb grasshopper populations
60
(1) 19
(2) 74
(1) 36
(6) 348
(4) 230
(3) 140
(1) 7
(1) 27
(1) 16
(5) 285
(1) 48
New fungicide protects sweet fruit
(1) 50
New herbicide trial results on virtual National
Variety Trials site
(5) 278
New improved InjectorDos for easier dispatch of
Japanese knotweed
(5) 270
New insect repellent – thousands of times
stronger than DEET
(3) 136
New information about the circadian rhythms of
the malaria mosquito
(5) 243
New online tool helps growers assess their
pesticide handling
(1) 47
New opportunity for postgraduate students at
CropWorld Global 2011
(3) 128
New pesticide code for Northern Ireland
(5) 263
New quartet of ant genomes advanced by
international collaborative
(2) 88
New recommendations for weed control in potatoes (3) 169
New red imported fire ant enemies in place for combat (1) 20
New study shows pesticides may pose a threat to
river ecosystems
(6) 297
New survey launched on tick-borne infections
in the UK and Ireland
(6) 308
New switch in resistance to plant diseases discovered (4) 220
New UC IPM pest management guidelines for apples(3) 164
New vaccine developed for Newcastle disease
(1) 47
New way to fight Panama disease
(6) 347
No safety in numbers for moths and butterflies
(3) 148
NPDES legislation update
(2) 70
NPMA announces Women of Excellence award
(2) 71
O
Olyset classic mosquito net available across Kenya (6) 294
One third of all malaria affected countries on course
for elimination
(6) 301
P
Parakeets cause problems for British wildlife
(1) 10
Parasitec 2010 a great success
(1) 17
Parasitec-Technoplagas: The ingredients for a
sure-fire success
(5) 257
Parasite uses the power of attraction to trick rats
into becoming cat food
(5) 255
PelGar International – truly global
(4) 184
Pesticide container collection pilot
(1) 8
Pesticide exposure raises prostate cancer risk
(5) 237
Pesticide risk course launched
(5) 245
Pesticide survey set by USDA
(6) 339
Pest Business event shortlisted for a global
Agrow award
(5) 247
PestEx 2011 – a great success with international delegates(3) 132
PestTech 2010
(1) 13
PestTech 2011 – the success continues
(6) 325
PestWest announce new addition to their team
(2) 78
Pheromones as a means to protect beech forests
(6) 346
Popular fungicides for peach leaf curl phased out (3) 140
Pressure on Australian Government to change
pesticide laws
(4) 188
Puzzling bird and fish deaths around the world
(1) 14
26/01/2012 11:23:27
Q, R
Rapid evolution within single crop-growing season
increases insect numbers
(6) 330
Rats instinctively avoid compound in carnivore urine (5) 262
Reaction is for the birds
(2) 83
Researchers collect ‘signals intelligence’ on insect pests (2) 93
Researchers identify how insects resist Bt pesticides(5) 263
Researchers study pesticide pathways into the
atmosphere
(4) 216
Rob Fryatt interviews – Roland Higgins,
Director General CEPA
(4) 218
Rob Fryatt interviews – Dr Stephen Doggett
(1) 28
Rodents problematic on farms
(2) 82
Roundup herbicide research shows plant and
soil problems
(5) 246
Russell IPM Ltd presented with Queens Award for
International Trade
(4) 192
Russell IPM receives Queens Award for Enterprise (3) 125
Russian speciality pesticides market open for
multinational suppliers
(6) 302
The 6th annual biocontrol industry Meeting, Lucerne (6) 304
The biological battle over snails
(3) 167
The dominant Anopheles vectors of malaria,
Africa, Europe, Middle East
(1) 18
The flight of the bumble bee: why are they
disappearing?
(5) 237
The IVCC shares the news of excellent progress at
Stakeholder Forum
(6) 316
The use of powerful thermo-fogging devices
(6) 324
THiNK PEST in Manila – another successful
FAOPMA event
(1) 41
Today’s opportunities, tomorrow’s success
(4) 196
Top US student wed scientists recognized
during first WeedOlympics
(5) 239
Towards a fair Southeast Europe
(2) 99
Treated seed needs extra care in handling
(3) 160
Treating insects with microwaves could replace pesticides(5) 245
Turf grass market shows green shoots of recovery (2) 112
Tuta absoluta, tomato leaf miner infestation – four
years on
(5) 280
25,000 farmers trained on responsible use of pesticides (1) 9
S
U
Saponins protect plants from insect infestation
(5) 267
Scientists develop new potato lines to wage war
on wireworms
(6) 343
Scientists exploit ash tree pest’s chemical communication(3) 173
Scientists make turfgrass safer for animals but
deadly for insects
(5) 283
Scottish landowners call for licence to kill birds of prey (3) 129
Second serious tree disease found in country
park in Scotland
(2) 116
Seed mixtures and insurance pest management:
future norm in corn belt
(5) 269
Seventh ICUP conference to be held in Brazil
(1) 5
Slug causes traffic light chaos
(6) 292
Smarter toxins help crops fight resistant pests
(6) 332
Spider web fire risk prompts Mazda recall
(2) 69
Spraying from a boat to control Simulian larvae
along the Sanga River
(3) 144
Spread of fungus-farming beetles is bad news for trees(6) 349
Standing water and mosquito breeding in cities
(5) 254
Successful tech transfer leads to more Hawaiian
exports
(2) 109
Surface layer effectively kills malaria mosquitoes
in rice paddies
(4) 210
Sustainable method termite management area-wide
scenario, Philippines
(4) 198
Susumu Kurihara (Obituary)
(2) 70
Swift action needed to tackle beetle threat
(2) 100
Syngenta to double key crop protection sales
as demand surges
(4) 223
Syngenta to open genetic research facility
(3) 129
Syngenta’s triple stack corn gains approval
(2) 109
Unfounded pesticide concerns adversely affect
health of low-income popn.
‘Unprecedented’ mouse plague leads to national
bait shortage
UAE tightens control over pesticides
UN warns of locust plague in Madagascar
Update on project to investigate de-husking of
seeds by small mammals
US man accused of ‘mouse sabotage’
US pay billions to fight invasive pests
USA moves to restrict EPA actions on pesticides
USA to phase out dicofol by 2016
USDA releases survey data on agricultural
chemical use
USDA researchers sequence genomes of fungi
that threaten wheat, poplars
Technology may help in early detection of pests
Testing fumigant films that keep the air clean
(4) 186
(4) 185
(4) 196
(1) 20
(2) 74
(5) 286
(5) 251
(4) 185
(5) 268
(3) 165
V, W
War on wasps
Warming worms – potato pest research
Wasps – a test case in the making
Ways with Weeds in Vineyards
Weed control in golf course roughs?
Where quality starts
Which direction are herbicides heading?
Wide variety of weeds in European maize
Wider use of restricted rodenticides
World’s weeds misunderstood
WSSA applauds weed science funding
(2) 90
(5) 282
(2) 86
(6) 334
(3) 170
(2) 98
(6) 345
(6) 342
(6) 293
(2) 102
(1) 15
X, Y, Z
T
(5) 241
(6) 300
(5) 284
Authors listed overleaf.
61
26/01/2012 11:23:27
P
Authors
(3) 144
(6) 334
(2) 84
(1) 22
(2) 90
(3) 152
(1) 38
(4) 198
(1) 17
(1) 34
(1) 25
(6) 318
(2) 112
(3) 142
(4) 194
(6) 314
(6) 316
(4) 204
(2) 94
(6) 338
(3) 153
(2) 84
(1) 34
(6) 304
(3) 150
(1) 52
(5) 272
(5) 250
(6) 334
(4) 204
(2) 110
(3) 153
(2) 86
(6) 326
(3) 150
(2) 79
(1) 13
(4) 214
(4) 230
(2) 84
(4) 213
(1) 34
Books
FAO Forestry Paper 164 (Implementation of
phytosanitary standards)
(3) 173
Field guide for integrated pest management in hops (5) 287
Forests and Timber: A field guide to exotic
pests and diseases
(6) 347
Integrated Vector Management – Controlling vectors of
malaria and other Insect vector borne diseases
(6) 350
Introduction to integrated mite management
(5) 287
Non-native and invasive ticks: threats to human
and animal health in US
(3) 174
Pesticides in the UK – the 2010 report
(4) 185
Rise of biopesticides special report
(5) 287
Toxoplasmosis of animals and humans, 2nd Ed.
(1) 62
DIN EN ISO 9001: 2008
Baleguel, Nkot Pierre
Beddows, Haydn
Bukhari, Tullu
Boase, Clive
Braks, Marieta
Dhang, Partho
Dommanget, Philippe
Douglas, Joseph
Entwistle, Julian
Fryatt, Rob
Harris, Caroline
Hassan, Nayem
Kamgang, Basile
Koenraadt, Constantianus
Lawrence, Jessica
Loughlin, David
Lowe, CF
Mabbett, Terry
Majambere, Silas
Paul, Graham
Paupy, Christophe
Pazik, Karol
Redbond, Martin
Romney, MG
Simos, Bill
Sheard, J Barrie
Stejskal, V
Szczepaniec, Adrianna
Taken, Willem
Zhang, Juan
Zhai, Jing
62
26/01/2012 11:23:30
T
U
,JHED
PCO‘S FAVOURITES
Made in Germany
TF 34 the standard for INDOOR FOGGING
TF 35 the all – time favourite
DIN EN ISO 9001: 2008
FIRST CHOICE FOGGING EQUIPMENT
Nebulo
Neburotor
TF W 60
TF 160 HD
TF 95 HD
Port 423
U 10 M
U 15 HD-M
U 40 HD-M
U 15 E
Unipro 5
IGEBA Geraetebau GmbH
87480 Weitnau | Germany
Thermal Fog Generators
ULV Aerosol Generators
,JHED$Q],3&LQGG
IPC_JanFeb2012_9.indd
63
[email protected]
www.igeba.de
63
26/01/2012
11:23:31
The mating disruption system with
10 years practical experience.
64
w w w.confusedmoth.com
Use biocides safely. Always read the label and product information before use. HSE Registration number 9346.
26/01/2012 11:23:32

International Pest Control Magazine

Transcription

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