Biosecurity

Hybrid swarm of ‘mega-pests’ threatens crops worldwide, warn scientists

A pair of major agricultural pests have combined to produce a “mega-pest” that could threaten crops around the world.

Losses from the original pest species, cotton bollworms and corn earworms, already amounts to billions of dollars worth of food.

But a hybrid of the two, shows signs of rapidly developing resistance to pesticides and it scientists fear it could cross international boundaries undetected, wiping out all the crops it comes across.

Bollworms and earworms are closely related. The bollworm has its origins in Africa, Asia and Europe while the earworm is a native of the Americas.

Both are in fact moth caterpillars and they feed on more than 100 plant species including vital crops like corn, cotton, tomato and soybean.

A team of Australian scientists who discovered the hybrid mega-pests think the combination of international species could be creating a new strain with unlimited geographical boundaries.