Biological control of major invasive pests: Achievements and current development

The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), is a serious crop pest native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, whereas it has quickly invaded Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. This pest has successfully invaded China since 2019. Presently FAW has developed resistance to all chemical families duet to controlling them with massive use of insecticides. The pupal stage of FAW is all spent in the soil. Meanwhile, the larva usually bore into the host plants and develop under protected conditions. Therefore, the use of egg parasitoids against FAW will be a potential biological control approach. In the past three years, some achievements on biological control of FAW with egg parasitoids have been made in China. Here we presented impacts of FAW egg mass scales on parasitism of egg parasitoids, and the main progresses of biodiversity, mass rearing with factitious host, and field application of FAW egg parasitoids in China. Finally, we give a perspective of FAW biological control with egg parasitoids in future.