The release of South American parasitic wasps by the Thai Department of Agriculture to tackle an infestation of cassava mealybugs received wide international media interest over the weekend, which continues today.
CIAT was closely involved in diagnosing the Thai mealybug outbreaks and issuing emergency guidenlines to contain them, as well as being part of the team that collected the Anagyrus lopezi wasp in Paraguay in the 1980s, and developing mass rearing protocols for Thai scientists.
Click to read the official press release, and Friday’s detailed announcement on the CIAT blog.
You might be also interested in the following articles. We’ll update the blog with more news as it happens.
- New York Times – Wasps to fight Thai cassava plague
- USA Today – Take a quarter of a million wasps and call me in the morning – the cassava cure in Thailand
- Reuters – Wasp v Mealybug: Thailand declares biological war
- The Canadian Press – Thailand to release 250,000 wasps in “sting operation” against cassava crop pests
- Agence France Presse – Thailand to release swarms of wasps on crop pest
- IRIN – Thailand: wasp release to tackle cassava killer
Later today we’ll bring you a report from CIAT’s regional research coordinator Rod Lefroy, who was at Saturday’s wasp release ceremony in the Thailand’s northeastern province of Khon Kaen.
Stay tuned.
