Story by PestNet , updated December 2022
When crop pests and diseases occur, farmers want help and advice immediately. They don’t want to wait and in many cases, they cannot wait. Unless they act quickly, the crop could be ruined.
This App gives extension staff and lead farmers all the information they need to treat the crop. If there is no way of saving a crop, the steps should help to prevent the problem from occurring in the future.
You will be able to find your pest, disease or weed in this APP.
Once you find your pest, disease or we, find a Fact Sheets to tell you about the symptoms, lifecycle, impact and management.
There are Mini Fact Sheets available to give you a summary of the pest, disease or weed that you might find helpful.
Tips on using the Online Browser App…
- Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds menu — launch the interactive key to find your pest, pathogen or weed
- Identify Pests, Diseases & Weeds — find a detailed fact sheet here:
- click on CROPS, to find the crop your pest or pathogen is on — then
- click on FIND A FACT SHEET if you want to find a disease, insect, mite, nematode, weed or other fact sheets — then
- click on WHAT DO YOU SEE? then click on DAMAGE OR DISEASE, INSECT OR MITES, WEEDS to show images to help you find your pest, disease or weed — then
- click on WHERE IS IT? then click on ABOVE GROUND, BELOW GROUND or ON WATER to show images to help you find your pest, disease or weed
- if you know what disease, insect, mite, nematode or weed you have, click on the magnifying glass icon in the top navigation bar to find its fact sheet.
- Full Fact Sheets — you will find a list of all 555 fact sheets available in alphabetical order
- Mini Fact Sheets — you will find a mini summarised version of the fact sheets
- About the App — information about Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds.
Apps
- Apple App — for iPhone and iPad
- Google App.
What’s new
In version 11, we have added 10 common weeds suggested by Fiji. We have looked to the horizon again and added several pests, mostly diseases, that are not yet in the region but are nearby; these include some nasty bacterial diseases of bananas and a potentially devastating fruit fly. Pests of root crops have been a focus, irrespective of whether they are already in the region, nearby or far. These include a ‘mixed bag’ of diseases caused by fungi, nematodes, phytoplasmas and viruses, and complete our world survey of major pests of important root crops. Finally, we include a further six insect pests, all from within the region, and a fact sheet on developing an Insecticide Resistance Management strategy.
A new feature since v10 is access to the PestNet Community. This community network helps people anywhere in the world obtain advice and information on plant protection. PestNet users include crop growers, extension officers, researchers, and biosecurity personnel. PestNet was started in 1999 by the same people who developed PPP&W so putting the two together was thought to be a good idea! You can access PestNet from the main page of the App or from the bottom of every fact sheet. Once in Pestnet, you can filter for articles from the Internet, pest images sent for identification, or requests for advice. You can even filter for fact sheets!
You can view all the PestNet submissions without joining, but we ask you to join the PestNet Community if you want to post a submission or reply to one. This is to stop malicious automatic bots from interfering with our network. You can join by registering an active email address, or via social media.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank ACIAR, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for providing support in the development of the App under a sub-regional (Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga) IPM project (HORT/2010/090). We thank Identic Pty Ltd., creators of Lucid and Fact Sheet Fusion for its development.