Posted on 04/06/2018 11:27:07 AM PDT by Red Badger
Globalisation and increased movement between countries and continents means movement of agricultural pests is becoming more common. Global trade means global pests. Credit: CSIRO
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CSIRO scientists have confirmed the hybridisation of two of the world's major pest species, into a new and improved mega-pest.
One of the pests, the cotton bollworm, is widespread in Africa, Asia and Europe and causes damage to over 100 crops, including corn, cotton, tomato and soybean.
The damage and controlling the pest costs billions of dollars a year.
It is extremely mobile and has developed resistance to all pesticides used against it.
The other pest, the corn earworm, is a native of the Americas and has comparatively limited resistance and host range.
However, the combination of the two, in a novel hybrid with unlimited geographical boundaries is cause for major concern.
Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) researchers in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides clear evidence of the hybridisation of the two moths in Brazil.
"A hybrid such as this could go completely undetected should it invade another country," Research Director leading CSIRO's Biosecurity Risk Evaluation and Preparedness Program Dr Paul De Barro said.
"It is critical that we look beyond our own backyard to help fortify Australia's defense and response to biosecurity threats.
"As Australia's national science agency, we are constantly looking for new ways to protect the nation and technology like genome sequencing, is helping to tip the scales in our favour."
While a combination of insecticides currently controls these pests well in Australia, it is important to study the pests themselves for sustainable long-term management world-wide.
The scientists confirmed that among the group of caterpillars studied, every individual was a hybrid.
"No two hybrids were the same suggesting a 'hybrid swarm' where multiple versions of different hybrids can be present within one population," fellow CSIRO Scientist Dr Tom Walsh said.
The bollworm, commonly found in Australia, attacks more crops and develops much more resistance to pesticides than the earworm.
A concerning finding among the Brazilian hybrids was that one was 51 per cent earworm but included a known resistance gene from the bollworm.
Lead author of the paper Dr Craig Anderson, a former CSIRO scientist now based at The University of Edinburgh, believes the hybrid study has wide-ranging implications for the agricultural community across the Americas.
"On top of the impact already felt in South America, recent estimates that 65 per cent of the USA's agricultural output is at risk of being affected by the bollworm demonstrates that this work has the potential to instigate changes to research priorities that will have direct ramifications for the people of America, through the food on their tables and the clothes on their backs," Dr Anderson said.
More information: Craig J. Anderson et al. Hybridization and gene flow in the mega-pest lineage of moth,Helicoverpa, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1718831115
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Provided by: CSIRO
I thought they were the same worm.
I have a huge problem with them in my corn. Left alone, there could be 6-10 worms in every ear, and the mold they bring with destroys the entire ear. Control involves squirting a bit of mineral oil in the end of each ear as soon as the silks show. I’m not sure that would work for sweet corn, but for dry corn it works pretty well. The oil is gone by the time they’re ready to harvest. I only lost a few ears to worms last year, and I think they were the ears that hid when I was patrolling.
Right
The Obamas and their entourage - number one global mega-pest swarm.
You bet
Oh boy, another potential illegal alien invader.
The Russians must be behind this!.........................
It all starts when the ants go marching one by one....
The BIG question is: Did President Trump collude with these “mega-pests”?
Nuke it from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.
Here in Arkansas, the old timers say that Fish and Game brought back the beavers over the objections of everybody but the environmentalists. Not enough territory for the beavers to thrive, etc., etc., so they brought in alligators to control the beaver population. Turns out gators don’t really like beavers (cue up the off-color jokes) so now we have both overrunning us.
I know that some of the F&G people post here, so I’ll probably get flamed for this, but it’s what the natives say, ALMOST to a person.
First-hand, I will say that in my area, the only old-growth bamboo one finds are along river banks (to control erosion). That one is undeniable. I doubt it was F&G who introduced it, maybe the Corps, but it sure wasn’t private parties.
They're talking about you.. ;-)
Same insect with different names depending on the crop.
The razzle dazzle on “different” species is a bit much. Perhaps, different races of the same species would be a bit closer to reality.
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