Antagonistic and additive effect when combining biopesticides against the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda.

Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (FAW) is a cosmopolitan crop pest species that has recently become established in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Current FAW control is almost entirely dependent on synthetic pesticides. Biopesticides offer a more sustainable alternative but have limitations.

The influence of manure-based organic fertilisers on the oviposition behaviour of Anopheles arabiensis.

The rice agroecosystem provides suitable breeding habitat for many malaria vector species, and  rice-adjacent communities are consequently exposed to a greater malaria transmission risk than non-rice-associated communities. As part of efforts to expand rice production in Africa, sustainable and climate-adapted practices such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) are being promoted. SRI encourages the use of organic fertilisers (OFs) such as cow and chicken dung, as opposed to inorganic industrially produced fertilisers, due to their lower resource cost, apparent benefit to the rice agroecosystem and as a means to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of industrial fertilisers.

Live Larvae Deter Oviposition by .

The worldwide invasive insect pest, Matsumura (spotted-wing ), lays eggs in soft and stone fruit before harvest. Hatched larvae cause fruit collapse and significant economic losses. Current control methods rely primarily on foliar insecticide applications, which are not sustainable long-term solutions due to regulatory restrictions and the risk of insecticide resistance developing.

Components of the Female Sex Pheromone of the Newly-Described Canola Flower Midge, Contarinia brassicola.

The canola flower midge, Contarinia brassicola Sinclair (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), is a newly-described species that induces galls on canola, Brassica napus Linnaeus and Brassica rapa Linnaeus (Brassicaceae). Identification of the sex pheromone of C. brassicola is essential to developing monitoring tools to elucidate the geographic range and hosts of this new pest, and the extent to which it threatens the $30 billion Canadian canola industry.

Identification of Components of the Aggregation Pheromone of the Guam Strain of Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros, and Determination of Stereochemistry.

The coconut rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros (Linnaeus 1758) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) (CRB), is endemic to tropical Asia where it damages both coconut and oil palm. A new invasion by CRB occurred on Guam in 2007 and eradication attempts failed using commonly applied Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus (OrNV) isolates. This and subsequent invasive outbreaks were found to have been caused by a previously unrecognized haplotype, CRB-G, which appeared to be tolerant to OrNV.

Hero Turned Villain: Identification of Components of the Sex Pheromone of the Tomato Bug, Nesidiocoris tenuis.

Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) (Heteroptera: Miridae) is a tropical mirid bug used as a biocontrol agent in protected crops, including tomatoes. Although N. tenuis predates important insect pests, especially whitefly, it also causes damage by feeding on tomato plants when prey populations decline, resulting in significant economic losses for growers.

Additive Effect of Botanical Insecticide and Entomopathogenic Fungi on Pest Mortality and the Behavioral Response of Its Natural Enemy.

Sustainable agricultural intensification employs alternatives to synthetic insecticides for pest management, but these are not always a direct replacement. Botanical insecticides, for example, have rapid knockdown but are highly labile and while biological pesticides are more persistent, they are slow acting. To mitigate these shortcomings, we combined the entomopathogenic fungus (EPF) with pyrethrum and evaluated their efficacy against the bean aphid, .