Brazil Declares Emergency after Caterpillar Wreaks Havoc
20 November 2013 
Helicoverpa larvae are aggressive, occasionally carnivorous and may even cannibalize each other.
Photo credit: Gyorgy Csoka, Hungary Forest Research Institute, Bugwood.org
Creative Commons license
The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture declared a state of emergency this week due to infestations of the Helicoverpa armigera caterpillar in Mato Grosso state, the country’s leading soy producer, as well as in Bahia.
Under the emergency measures, the Ministry has authorized the temporary import of crop protection products with the active ingredient emamectin benzoate to control the pest, also known as the corn earworm or cotton bollworm.
The agriculture boards of the individual states will be responsible for implementing a plan based on Integrated Pest Management practices as developed by Embrapa, Brazil’s agricultural research agency. The exact areas hit by the infestation will be disclosed separately in the coming days, the Ministry said.
Embrapa said it first received reports from farmers about the outbreak in December 2012. The pest is estimated to have inflicted billions of dollars in damage to corn, cotton, soybean, common bean, cowpea, millet and sorghum, in addition to dozens of other crops.
No one can identify where the pest came from specifically, but Embrapa researchers blamed substandard farming practices and the “lack of rational use of pesticides” for the spread, as haphazard use of the same nonselective products killed off natural enemies of the pest and caused imbalances in agricultural systems.
The state of emergency for the two states is in place for one year.
Source: Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture; Embrapa
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