We would like to share the 2024 Annual Report for the Centre for Biological Control. It was another very busy and productive year for the CBC with wonderful highlights. Please enjoy reading the annual report, we look forward to hearing your feedback or answering any questions you may have.
From the Director's Report: "Noteworthy research achievements on the weed front in 2024 include:
• the importation of a new lineage of Dactylopius tomentosus for thistle cholla, Cylindropuntia pallida;
• the importation of Anthonomus morticinus for Solanum mauritianum at Wits University;
• the establishment of Listronotus appendiculatus on Sagittaria platyphylla;
• the establishment of a bud-galling wasp, Perilampella hecataeus on Acacia baileyana and A. dealbata;
• the complete control of Pistia stratiotes by Neohydronomus affinis on the Vaal River Barrage, only to be replaced with water hyacinth;
• highly successful control of Salvinia molesta by Cyrtobagous salviniae in Zimbabwe;
• a number of insects new to science being collected off indigenous grass species that are invasive elsewhere in the world.
The agricultural entomologists have also been really busy with several trials, forcing us to rethink the value of augmentative releases of imported parasitoids, and some new research that will improve the success of the SIT programme against false codling moth. We have also initiated some research in collaboration with CRI on the role of psyllids in citrus orchards to prepare the industry for the possible introduction of the psyllid Diphorina citri that vectors Asian Greening disease."