Climate change is driving biological invasions in temperate European zones. What is being done to protect agriculture? By Engela Duvenage. Warmer weather is increasingly allowing tropical pests and other species to persist throughout winter, and become problems, according to applied…
Dr Aruna Manrakhan of Citrus Research International reviews its use in South African citrus and deciduous fruit. By Engela Duvenage. “Prior to 1980, fruit industries relied on single-point disinfestation treatments to mitigate insect pest risks,” said Manrakhan. “The ban or…
What do growers, chocolate lovers, car manufacturers, and homeowners have in common? Hostility to brown marmorated stink bugs. By Anna Mouton. The brown marmorated stink bug — Halyomorpha halys — is a pentatomid bug. Familiar pentatomids include antestia — Antestiopsis thunbergii — and green…
Larvae of the light brown apple moth eat pretty much anything — this is never a good sign in a pest. By Anna Mouton. The light brown apple moth — Epiphyas postvittana — is a leaf-roller moth in the well-known Tortricidae family.…
Ensuring that South African growers can send their fruit to international markets is a full-time job. By Anna Mouton. Lindi Benić is the joint market-access manager for Hortgro and SATI — the South African Table Grape Industry. Market access involves…
Most drosophila fruit flies hang around overripe or rotting fruit. But the spotted-wing drosophila prefers to raise its offspring on fresh fruit. By Anna Mouton. Almost everyone is familiar with fruit flies in the genus Drosophila — they are those annoying little…
Whereas spotted-wing drosophila is the black sheep of an otherwise blameless family, the peach fruit fly is one of the Mafiosi of the insect world. By Anna Mouton. The peach fruit fly — Bactrocera zonata — shares a genus with the notorious…
Detection data should inform regulation. By Engela Duvenage. An ominous anniversary of sorts was celebrated on 5 June 2019 when Prof. James Carey from the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of California, Davis gave an overview of…
A changing strategy for a changing world. By Marinda Louw Coetzee. Crop protection is changing due to increasingly stringent market requirements for ethical fruit production, as well as due to changes in orchard structure and ecology. The Orchard of the…
What comes next for the Orchard of the Future? By Glenneis Kriel and Wiehann Steyn. The Orchard of the Future programme was considered revolutionary when it was launched in 2010, but innovations associated with the participating orchards have since become…