A Guide to Biological Control of Fall Armyworm in Africa Using Egg Parasitoids

Abstract

Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a voracious agricultural pest native to North and South America, was first detected on the African continent in 2016 and has subsequently spread throughout the continent and across Asia. Fall armyworm (FAW) is known to feed on over 350 plant species and it has been predicted to cause up to $US 13 billion per annum in crop losses throughout sub-Saharan Africa, thereby threatening the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers. Since the occurrence of FAW in Africa, synthetic chemical insecticides have been widely used as emergency responses to halt distribution of the pest and minimize damage in maize fields. Most smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia, however, cannot afford frequent insecticide applications. Furthermore, dependence on chemical insecticides results in the development of resistance to major classes of insecticides, effects on nontarget organisms, as well as other adverse effects to humans and the environment. This highlights the need for the development of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies that are suitable to African smallholder farmers. Biological control using egg parasitoids particularly from the genus Trichogramma and Telenomus remus is part of the IPM approach presently underway to control FAW in North and South America. The approach involves mass rearing and release of these egg parasitoids to control FAW. These egg parasitoids are reared on factitious and natural hosts. Various species of both parasitoids are already present in Africa. After identifying the species/strain that best suit the local condition, the parasitoid wasps can be mass reared and used against FAW and other lepidopteran pests. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to provide guidelines on mass rearing systems for both the egg parasitoids and their hosts. The book describes the methods used to mass produce FAW (S. frugiperda), rice meal moth (Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton), Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), egg parasitoids - (Trichogramma chilonis Ishii, Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) and (Telenomus remus Nixon, Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) in the facilities at icipe- Kenya and ICRISAT-Niger. This guide is primarily intended for biological control practitioners at universities, research institutes and commercial laboratories particularly involved in managing FAW and other lepidopteran pests. The information in this document is also intended to assist those who are relatively new at rearing FAW, rice meal moth, and the parasitoid wasps and to those who wish to improve existing rearing systems. The document covers virtually all aspects of information on the rearing techniques of each species such as colony establishment, stock culture maintenance, diet preparation, mass rearing, storage, quality control and field release. Each section is interrelated, contains step-by-step procedures, and is supported by colour pictures. The guide produced jointly by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Haramaya University, and Virginia Tech through support provided by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management, funded by the of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-L-15-00001. International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) is an international scientific research institute, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya that works towards improving lives and livelihoods of people in Africa. The center’s main objective is to research and develop alternative and environmentally friendly pest and vector management strategies that are effective, selective, non-polluting, non-resistance inducing, and which are affordable to resource-limited rural and urban communities. icipe's mandate extends to the conservation and use of the rich insect biodiversity found in Africa. Today, icipe is the only international center in sub-Saharan Africa working primarily on arthropods. icipe focuses on sustainable development using human health as the basis and the environment as the foundation for sustainability (http://www.icipe.org/). International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT): is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in the drylands of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi-arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people, and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these poor people to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agriculture. ICRISAT is headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana State, in India, with two regional hubs (Nairobi, Kenya and Bamako, Mali) and country offices in Niger, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ethiopia and Mozambique. ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR system Organization (https://www.icrisat.org/).

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly known as Virginia Tech, is a public, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia (https://vt.edu/). The university houses the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management, which aims to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by implementing sustainable crop solutions in the developing world. Haramaya University is a public academic and research university with its main campus in Haramaya, located at about 510 km East of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The university offers 264 academic programs of which 113 are undergraduate programs, 131 are second degree (M.Sc./M.Ed./MPH) and 20 are PhD level training programs. In addition, the university has been actively involved in research activities, primarily in the fields of agriculture. (http://www.haramaya.edu.et/).