Medium larva and shot hole damage
Fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda) is an exotic pest that was first detected on the Australian mainland in February 2020. It has since been been detected in the Northern Territory, northern Western Australia and northern New South Wales. Eradication has been determined to be unfeasible and it is now classified as an endemic pest.
Learn more about this pest:
The Beatsheet will send out updates on this pest as more information becomes available.
Other sources of information
Webinars and recent presentations
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- A GRDC update webinar on FAW (12 November 2020). You can listen to the recording and read the Update paper at the GRDC website.
- FAW for horticulture agronomists presentation (August 2020)
- An Invertebrate pest management in maize presentation (August 2020) includes planning for FAW.
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See also our presentations page for more information and links to earlier recordings.
Other resources
The GRDC has a Fall armyworm: a crop invader on the march page with identification information and links to other resources.
The Plant Biosecurity Research Initiative has published a fall armyworm continuity plan and a podcast series on FAW. It explores the experiences and observations of experts from around the globe and here in Australia. Visit the PHA website.
CropLife Australia has released a FAW resistance strategy.
A range of spray permits for fall armyworm are now available. Search for permits relevant to your crop/situation at the APVMA website.
The DARABUG insect development model provides a convenient and readily available means of predicting development times using different insect models, including FAW. Gridded climatic data of daily temperatures is used to generate estimates of the dates of occurrence for each stage throughout the whole life-cycle of an insect.
CottonInfo has a short video highlighting some of the similar characteristics between caterpillars and an Endemics to exotics factsheet that looks at some of the differences between armyworm species found in the tropics.
Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) has a range of crop-specific factsheets.