Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) scientists have reportedly busted a myth about a pest that affects grain crops on Australia’s East Coast.
Grains Entomologist at DAF, Trevor Volp said the conventional wisdom among grain growers in Southern Queensland and Northern NSW was that the cotton bollworm (pictured) often won’t infest grain crops until Spring.
“However, our data challenges that assumption,” Mr Volp said.
“Grain growers and agronomists can expect this major pest in their crop from early to mid-August and that means they should plan management strategies accordingly.”
Mr Volp oversees a network of agronomists and Departmental staff that run a pheromone trapping program to detect flights of the cotton bollworm and the native budworm in important cropping areas.
He said the work provided growers and agronomists with a warning system for potential egg-laying in susceptible crops.
“This is the fifth year of our program, and a major result we’ve obtained is that traps are consistently capturing bollworm moths during Winter, when a lot of people are only expecting native budworm to be present,” Mr Volp said.
“The bollworm has evolved resistance to a wide range of insecticides that native budworm is still susceptible to.”
He said if people were operating under the assumption that there was only budworm in the crop they would potentially experience spray failures and be wasting their time and money.
“This information is of particular importance to growers and agronomists who are making control decisions for Winter/Spring crops in coming seasons,” Mr Volp said.
“You should be prepared that bollworm will more than likely be present in your crop.”
“While increasing Autumn and Winter temperatures are suspected to contribute to the presence of cotton bollworm, more research is needed to determine the source of these moths,” he said.
