FAO: Against the world spread fall armyworm

The Fall Armyworm (FAW), or Spodoptera frugiperda, is an insect that is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. In the absence of natural control or good management, it can cause significant damage to crop. It prefers maize but can feed on more than 80 additional species of crops, including rice, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, vegetable crops and cotton. FAW was first detected in Central and Western Africa in early 2016 and has quickly spread across virtually all of Sub Saharan Africa. In July 2018 it was confirmed in India and Yemen. 

 

 

By December 2018, it had been reported in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. As at June 2019, it has been reported in Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam, Egypt and the Republic of Korea. Japan reported presence of FAW in July 2019.

 

 

By December 2018, it had been reported in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. As at June 2019, it has been reported in Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam, Egypt and the Republic of Korea. Japan reported presence of FAW in July 2019. 

 

·Maize/Corn planting area 8,875,910 rai, in 68 provinces and Farmer 716,387 Households

 

·Costs for growing corn using chemical emamectin benzoate (Pro Claim) from Syngenta Company

 

·The registration and Import statistic of pesticide as per recommended by DOA

 

 

At the end of December 2018, DOA reports were received as Fall Armyworm surveillance that found the outbreaks of fall armyworm in Corn plantations in Tak, Kamphaeng Phet, Uthai Thani, Phitsanulok and Nakhon Sawan.

 

Same conversion and began to find the adult who had just left the pupa the fall armyworm destroying the corn from the stage of germination to corn and if entering the age of 1-15 days will cause the whole corn to die If not able to prevent the removal immediately when the corn is 30 days old or more the worms that will begin to live in the top after that the worm moves into the male flowers and pods making it difficult to prevent if a severe epidemic is found 73 percent of the production will be damaged.

 

However, the outbreak of the fall armyworm, which can be found and can be controlled if following the recommendations of the DOA the farmers who found the outbreak of fall armyworm using the recommended removal method can control the outbreak of the fall armyworm but worrisome is that there are farmers who use other insecticides that is not recommended Including not spraying the time when the worm left the hiding place causing ineffective removal and causing more outbreaks.

 

Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda JE Smith) is a major enemy of corn in addition, there are more than 80 food crops such as rice, sugarcane, sorghum, legumes, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, cotton, sunflowers, bananas, garlic, ginger, sweet potatoes, peppers, cruciferous plants, melon family and vegetables.

 

The life cycle of the Fall armyworm takes 30-40 days after mating female butterflies lay eggs at night by laying eggs in groups of about 100-200 eggs covered with eggs, one female butterfly lays approximately 1,500 - 2,000 eggs in 2-3 days, the worm have 6 ages, the worm stage is 14-22 days the fully grown larvae have a body length of 3.2-4.0 centimeters, The caterpillars drop into the ground to enter the pupa, the pupa stage 7-13 days is an adult can live for 10-21 days, can fly an average of 100 kilometers per night, can migrate between plots and long distances.
 

The nature of the attack 

The destruction of plants occurs only in the period of the worm, worms will destroy the corn from the age of about 7 days until the pods by eating the top and the cleaved corn leaves or eating the whole leaf and the maggots will be hiding, light at the top or base of the leaf sheath, the obvious damage is In the sapling stage, plants die early plants will not grow incomplete small atrophy If the epidemic is severe 73% of the area will be damaged.
 

 

In extremely hot conditions is before entering the rainy season (February - April) temperature 36-41 degrees or during the hot, dry and rainy weather during such conditions.

 

The period before the male flowers appear the worm will eat the stamens after the top leaves all unfold male flowers emerge from the leaves that are covered the worms aged about 5 days tend to hide under the soil eat tissue growth, while the base of the worm ages 3-6 is a very damaging at this stage.

 

The period that needs to be prevented and eliminated the spotted corn larva is the period from the germination of the corn to the age of 30-43 days, because it is the most epidemic period in the corn to continuously lay eggs on corn leaves which will lay a lot of eggs during the first 3 weeks after the corn germinates Corn grower Should therefore be regularly investigated after the corn germinates.

 

Observe the egg group And the white patches on the leaf surface When found, the tree was destroyed Prevention and removal as recommended by the Department of Agriculture that focus on spraying substance into the top cone.

 

How to prevent the fall armyworm that works according to the academic principle is that if a small worm is found, the worm will be destroyed and use bio products, ie BTi, and BTk at rate 40-80 grams per 20 liters of water spraying every 4-7 days when the outbreak is found if the eggs are found to be destroyed by collecting the destroyed egg groups and using the tail beetles full-length personal destroyed by using yellow sticky traps number 80 traps / rai for large worms to destroy by using predatory insects and in the case of using chemicals to use chemicals as recommended by the DOA as:

 

Using seed treatment, must select foliar chemical different group of seed treatment (RAC 2B).

 

Using spray at 7 days interval or spaced according to infestation and must be changed a chemical group at 30 days interval.

 

 

The DOA has recommendations for the prevention of the eradication of fall armyworm, which can be effectively eliminated if there is an outbreak of the fall armyworm it is not a concern what is concerned is that farmers use methods to prevent eliminate and not cause the outbreak to increase including the cost of buying chemicals that have not been effective therefore if the outbreak of the fall armyworm is found follow the instructions of the DOA recommendation and the report of fall armyworm outbreaks to the corn plot as per DOA recommends the elimination of academic principles the warning do not use chemicals that are not in the label of DOA recommendation may not get results plus more outbreaks too.

 

FAO had been reported in the website http://www.fao.org/fall-armyworm/en/