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Agence France-Presse

Fall armyworms, a long-time American pest, are munching their way around the globe, now raising alarm in Asia after entrenching themselves in Africa.
The insect was first reported outside the Americas in 2016 – in Africa, where it has infested up to half of some crops of maize, sorghum and millet. It’s now spread through Yemen and South Asia to Thailand and China.
This new arrival to her territory worries Uraporn Nounart, a specialist on farm pests at Thailand’s Department of Agriculture.
“We never had this one before. They just were found late last year and in January in this area. It’s a big problem,” she said while visiting farms recently in Kanchanaburi province, northwest of Bangkok.

The worms can cause damage at all stages of a corn crop, but the worst may be when the larvae turn sweetcorn cobs to mush.
The incursions of this alien species threaten to upend the balance between costs and returns for farmers in Thailand and elsewhere. Pesticides are costly, toxic and do not always work.
In its native regions, from Argentina to northern Canada depending on the season, the bug’s natural enemies – predators, parasites and pathogens such as bacteria or viruses – help keep it in check.
But the new habitats may lack some of those defences, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation, which is convening a conference in Bangkok this week to help share information and strategies on battling the pest.
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Keeping it in check is an urgent priority: even though Asia is mostly known for rice growing, maize is an important staple crop and crucial source of feed for poultry and livestock.
In the cornfields in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, there were armyworms in all stages of the crop, from seedlings to full-grown.
Some local farmers were working hard to limit their losses by pulling the tops off stalks grown for baby corn and discarding them to limit how much damage the worms could do. That tactic causes the plant to sprout new ears that can be harvested later.
Organic farmers eschew many chemicals so they can sell the waste corn stalks as cattle fodder. Spraying with biological substances such as fungi, and thread worms that may act as parasites for armyworms, can help, but some fields still lost about one-third of the first baby corn harvest.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said one farmer called Sanae.

In another field, Thanwa, a younger farmer, sought help and had his fields sprayed using drones. For taller plants, that is about the only way for the small-scale farmers to get pesticides up onto the affected parts of the plant once the worms are established.
Swaddled against the burning sun, Uraporn Nournart and her team of young scientists scrambled through the fields, peeking into corn husks and pulling apart damaged stalks to collect worms and eggs for monitoring.
They’re conducting trials in fields like the one Sanae was working her way through, a tranquil plot of waist-high corn ringed by banana trees.
Charuwat Taekul, an entomologist at the department of agriculture who specialises in microscopic parasitic wasps, was collecting egg clusters to use in his research into natural enemies of the worms.
It is unclear if such wasps would be effective in keeping the fall armyworms under control, but it is one of various strategies being considered.
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“Putting into place adequate management measures once a country gets invaded by [the worms] is important,” said Marjon Fredrix, who works with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Bangkok. “However, the likelihood of further spread is real.”
She noted that when the worms become adult moths they can fly more than 100 kilometres a night, or even farther if they’re carried by the wind.
The best case scenario, said Fredrix, would be farmers successfully scouting for and finding the worms early on, so they can keep them under control. The Food and Agriculture Organisation has developed an app that teaches the basics of how to find and deal with fall armyworms.

“This new pest needs to be managed in years to come, and farmers will need to develop skills to do so in a sustainable manner,” Fredrix said.
The help came a bit too late for Yodsapon, a farmer in Tha Muang. He follows Uraporn’s team stoically as it winds its way through his wrecked field of sweetcorn.
At first glance, the 2-metre-high stalks look vigorous, with good-sized ears that are nearly picking size. But a closer look shows holes in the stalks where the worms have worked their way inside, munching ear after ear into yellowish brown mush.
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The family has another source of income in the form of a small eco-hostel set in their tropical garden. But income from that is unstable, and the corn crop will be missed, Yodsapon says.
He is thinking hard about what to do next: switch to another crop? Cassava? Potato?
A good harvest from the field would have netted 2,000-3,000 baht (US$63-US$94), he said, but spraying repeatedly to try to vanquish the worm could triple his costs.
“In that case, I can’t afford it,” he said.


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China, Thailand and rest of Asia brace for invasion of a destructive American pest: fall armyworms

In this March 13, 2019, photo, Uraporn Nournart, a field expert at Thailand’s agriculture ministry, points to plants affected by the fall armyworm in Tha Muang, Thailand. The pest is munching its way through corn fields around the globe, raising alarm over damage to crops as it spreads into areas that may lack its natural enemies. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

In this March 13, 2019, photo, Uraporn Nournart, a field expert at Thailand’s agriculture ministry, points to the fall armyworm in Tha Muang, Thailand. The pest is munching its way through corn fields around the globe, raising alarm over damage to crops as it spreads into areas that may lack its natural enemies. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

A representative from Thailand’s agriculture ministry indicates plants affected by the fall armyworm. Photo: AP

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News

Asia

Southeast Asia

First reported outside the Americas in 2016, the insect is now found throughout Africa, and from Yemen to South Asia, Thailand and China


First reported outside the Americas in 2016, the insect is now found throughout Africa, and from Yemen to South Asia, Thailand and China.


Food and agriculture

China economy

China, Thailand and rest of Asia brace for invasion of a destructive American pest: fall armyworms

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}First reported outside the Americas in 2016, the insect is now found throughout Africa, and from Yemen to South Asia, Thailand and China

First reported outside the Americas in 2016, the insect is now found throughout Africa, and from Yemen to South Asia, Thailand and China