Fall armyworm outbreak in China: fall armyworm larvae spread across Taiwan, 4 adults trapped in Matsu

Fall armyworm adults have appeared! The Council of Agriculture describes the current appearance of fall armyworm larvae at points across Taiwan as like "fairies scattering flowers," with reports from nearly every county and city; as of the 14th, molecular identification has confirmed 5 cases and morphological identification has confirmed 39 cases, all of which have activated the prevention and control SOP for pest eradication. As for the fall armyworm adults that everyone is most worried about, the sex pheromone traps set up in Matsu and Penghu have both captured some; among them, the 4 adults caught in Matsu have been confirmed as fall armyworm adults, but the adults caught in Penghu are still being identified.

Further reading"The critical 10 days to annihilate the fall armyworm!

Because the Council of Agriculture began issuing a wanted notice for the fall armyworm this week, calling on farmers to actively patrol their fields, and offering a reward of 10,000 yuan for reports that are identified and confirmed, the number of reports has exploded. Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Junji said that as of the evening of the 13th, the number of reports had reached nearly 200, and more than half were made using the "Agricultural Natural Disaster Instant Reporting System APP"; at the same time, the surge in reports is not a bad thing, as it gives disease prevention personnel time and opportunity to eliminate the fall armyworm.

Looking at the locations of observation, identification and confirmation, apart from Nantou, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, confirmed cases have already appeared everywhere. Chen Junji said the discovery sites are distributed across different areas, and their locations simply present a "fairies scattering flowers" pattern, having been found in all regions of Taiwan, confirming the Council of Agriculture's initial speculation: the fall armyworm came to Taiwan through the southwest airflow; if border interception had not been done well, or if it had come in with fresh produce, it should have spread from a single point, which differs from the current distribution of larvae.

Chen Junji said the latest epidemic situation is that sex pheromone traps set up on the offshore islands have also found adults. Four adults were captured at Fu'ao Port in Matsu, but fortunately Matsu has few host plants; in addition, adults were also trapped at a monitoring point at Magong Port in Penghu, but are still being identified. Chen Junji stressed that so far no adults have been found on the main island, and there is still a chance to block the fall armyworm from taking up long-term residence on the main island of Taiwan. Everyone's help is needed to find and annihilate the fall armyworm before the adults emerge and can fly.

Feng Haidong, Director-General of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, pointed out that the confirmed and suspected cases of fall armyworm adults captured by traps were respectively at Fu'ao Port in Matsu and Magong Port in Penghu, both located in port areas, in sex pheromone traps set up for border inspection use. If insects attached to transport vehicles are detected, border quarantine work will be strengthened; this is unrelated to domestic disease prevention. At present, there are 500 monitoring points, including more than 70 at the border and more than 400 in production areas, and monitoring points have also been set up on the outlying island of Kinmen.

However, domestic farmers still need to be mentally prepared, and it cannot be ruled out that they may have to coexist with the fall armyworm. Chen Junji said, "We may have to be prepared to coexist with the fall armyworm." Once adults are found on the main island, the second-stage strategy of mandatory spraying will be activated, because on-site burial is no longer very effective; after spraying to a certain extent, based on island-wide monitoring results, the third stage of self-management will be activated, and by then it may be necessary to prepare to coexist with the fall armyworm. However, so far we are still in stage 1, and we hope to eliminate the larvae in stage 1 as much as possible. The Council of Agriculture said that if the larvae cannot be eliminated and adults appear, spraying will be made more mandatory to reduce adult density, so that at least it does not cause too much harm to agriculture.

Fall armyworm instant special topic"See here

The number of suspected fall armyworm reports has surged, and morphologically confirmed cases show a fairies-scattering-flowers distribution.