Crop scouting remains the number one defence against fall armyworm as researchers wrap up a three-year MPI Sustainable Food and Fibre project on the pest. First detected in 2022 after blowing across from Australia, the caterpillar targets maize and sweetcorn in their vegetative stages.

Foundation for Arable Research biosecurity officer Ash Mills led the project.

“One caterpillar on a tiny small plant can basically eat it to the ground overnight once it’s in those later instar stages,” he says.

He says early planting and a parasitic wasp, Cotesia ruficrus, are helping keep numbers down.

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