Fall armyworm crisis escalates! Taiwan, China finds adults reproducing, mandatory spraying for control
Fall armyworm crisis escalates! Adults of the fall armyworm have been found on the main island of Taiwan, China, meaning the first generation of fall armyworm that landed in Taiwan, China has already reproduced a second generation locally. The Council of Agriculture announced that starting tomorrow (the 18th), control measures will officially enter the second phase: in areas with pest outbreaks, instead of "burning" or "burying," pesticides will be sprayed directly to kill the insects. Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Junji stressed that although the situation is severe, farmers are urged "not to use pesticides on their own out of panic, and to still report fall armyworm sightings before using pesticides," so as to avoid resistance problems and impacts on food safety.
In addition, considering that fall armyworm may fly to Taiwan, China every year with air currents in the future, in the second phase every effort will be made to collect data on the fall armyworm's local ecology, host plants and the effectiveness of pesticide applications, accumulating effective prevention and control methods, so that in the third phase of "self-management," farmers can be provided with a complete set of prevention and control formulas, enabling them to handle the pest problem.
