Taiwan fall armyworm adult reproduction crisis escalates, mandatory pesticide spraying control launched
Fall armyworm crisis escalates! Adult fall armyworms have been found on the main island of Taiwan, meaning the first generation of fall armyworms that landed in Taiwan has already reproduced a second generation locally. The Council of Agriculture announced that starting tomorrow (the 18th), control measures will officially enter the second stage: in areas where the pest outbreak has occurred, 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, he calls on farmers "not to use pesticides on their own out of panic, and to still use pesticides only after fall armyworms are found and reported." This is to avoid resistance issues and impacts on food safety.
In addition, considering that fall armyworms may fly to Taiwan with air currents every year in the future, in the second stage efforts will be made to collect data on the local ecology, host plants and pesticide application effects of fall armyworms, accumulating effective prevention and control methods, so that in the third stage of "self-management," farmers can be provided with a complete set of prevention and control formulas, enabling them to handle the pest problem.
