Premium Content Subscriber only There is a new bioweapon in the arsenal to fight against a small pest with a "voracious" appetite for Queensland's agricultural crops. Native to the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, fall armyworm arrived on Australian shores at the beginning of 2020 and has since been detected in Emerald, Clermont, Mackay and Dysart. It eats more than 350 plant species including sugarcane, vegetables, sorghum, pastures and wheat. The Agricultural and Fisheries Department has been given the green light to import Fawligen, a biopesticide which infects the caterpillar and its larvae with a virus.
Agricultural Industry Development Minister Mark Furner said importing Fawligen for research allowed the government to begin testing how it performed under local conditions.