By Elizabeth Leake, InSTePP Communication Specialist, University of Minnesota

What has a voracious appetite, is resistant to broad-spectrum pesticides and could take a big bite out of the US agricultural economy? Helicoverpa armigera, or “Old World Bollworm,” recently appeared in South and Central America, and is expected to hitch-hike to the US via Caribbean or Mexican produce import channels.

H. armigera is especially worrisome to the agribusiness community since it eats a variety of US crops that are produced in pest-favorable climates, including cotton, corn, flowers, and tomato. To complicate matters, it’s nearly indistinguishable from its North American cousin, H. zea, commonly known as the corn earworm, and hybridized “superbug” offspring are possible.

As part of the University of Minnesota’s MnDRIVE Global Food Ventures initiative, the University’s International Science & Technology Practice & Policy (InSTePP) Center and Department of Entomology collaborated with a multinational research team to prepare a new distribution model that highlights the global invasion threat, taking into account climate suitability, irrigation patterns and the existence of suitable crop hosts. In addition to the recent confirmation of H. armigera in Brazil and Puerto Rico, they suggest the potential for rapid migration could warrant consideration of bio-security and control methods to slow progression, giving the industry time to build a defense.  

The paper, “The Potential Distribution of Invading Helicoverpa armigera in North America: Is it Just a Matter of Time?” was published in the March 18, 2015 edition of PLOS ONE.