Could biocontrol solve the papaya mealybug problem for Ugandan farmers?

Papaya mealybug on fruit
Papaya mealybug, Paraccous margniatus, is native to Central America but has spread rapidly in invaded countries. It was detected in Uganda in 2021 where it has the potential to affect the production and quality of papaya and other host crops.
Read Further

Mass rearing training strengthens papaya mealybug biocontrol programme in Kenya

Farmer field in Kwale County, during Biocontrol training in Kenya
PlantwisePlus has been working in collaboration with partners in Kenya to implement a classical biological control strategy to manage papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus). The invasive pest has been devastating papaya crops in Kenya. A CABI study in 2019 found it caused an estimated 57% yield losses across five counties.
Read Further

PlantwisePlus: detecting and responding to plant health threats

Dr Ivan Rwomushana
Invasive species specialist Dr Ivan Rwomushana is one of the Global Team Leaders for CABI’s new global PlantwisePlus programme. His role within the programme is to strengthen decision support systems for the detection and response to pest outbreaks and plant health threats.
Read Further

Pakistan’s papaya pest squashed through biocontrol

strawb
By Saleem Shaikh. Reblogged from SciDev.Net A severe infestation of the papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus) nearly wiped out papaya orchards in Pakistan before the largely farmed country decided to replace conventional chemical pesticides that were ineffective with natural predators that proved to be successful. The system was developed by agro-biotechnologists and entomologists at the Pakistani chapter…
Read Further

Update: Plant Health News (06 May 15)

strawb
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the encouragement of citizen cooperation in the fight against fruit flies in Chile, exciting new projects to improve agriculture in Ecuador and an update from IITA on the spread of papaya mealybug in Tanzania. Click on the link to read more of…
Read Further

The papaya mealybug reaches Malaysia

strawb
Distribution of the papaya mealybug (screenshot from the interactive distribution map at www.plantwise.org) © CABI Native to Mexico, the papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus) is controlled in its home range by endemic natural enemies, like the parasitoid Acerophagus papayae. When the papaya mealybug invaded a number of countries in the neotropical region, including the Caribbean, US…
Read Further