Meet the entomology team
Costly pest and weed control
Insects, pests, and weeds cost Western Australian grain growers more than $1 billion each year due to reduced yields, product downgrades, and control costs.
Many growers spend about $70 per hectare or a fifth of their entire input costs on insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides each season.
Chemical control is the second largest on-farm expense after fertiliser.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s (DPIRD) grains entomology team is focused on reducing chemical usage on farms and identifying non-chemical control methods for integrated pest management systems.
The key researchers in pest management
Senior Research Scientist Dustin (Dusty) Severtson leads the team in monitoring key pests such as native budworm, and diamondback moth using both traditional and automated traps.
Dusty has worked on various entomology projects over the years, including the PestFacts WA service for insect identification and communications, trapping native budworm and diamondback moth, and exploring new crop scouting methods using remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS).
Dusty also developed the CropScout app, which aids crop inspectors in applying insect spray thresholds in the field and recording and mapping results.
Another key researcher in the team is Svetlana Micic, who leads broadacre pest management R&D projects statewide.
She participates in several national collaborative projects, including coordinating surveillance for the Australian plague locust to predict areas at risk of spring hatchings.
In high rainfall areas, she investigates conical snails, which can lead to grain downgrades due to contamination.
By understanding snail survival and reproduction, Svetlana develops practical management options for growers and promotes integrating pest management into farming systems rather than treating it as an additional activity.
Christiaan Valentine focuses on developing innovative insect and disease traps.
Smart traps are being installed in the grainbelt as part of a project to develop remote surveillance technology for better pest and disease management across large farming properties.
These traps use sensors and cameras to transmit live data on pest populations to a server or website.
Christiaan, along with Jean Galloway, is also developing and testing automated spore collection units to quickly diagnose and manage various fungal diseases in grain crops.
These traps collect airborne fungal spores on sticky microscope slides.
Amber Balfour-Cunningham, a research scientist with 6-years of experience in the Western Australian grains and horticulture industry, focuses on insect pest monitoring and management strategies.
She is currently completing a PhD at UWA on the impacts and monitoring techniques for natural enemies of key invertebrate pests of Australian grain crops.
Bec Severtson works part time supporting research projects and communications in the PestFacts WA team, providing growers with pest information during the season.
She is dedicated to finding out as much as possible about the Dongara weevil, which is attacking canola in the mid-west.
Andrew Phillips joined the team in 2023 and is currently working on the Dongara weevil project funded by the GRDC.
Prior to that, he worked on his PhD at Murdoch University on the chemical ecology of natural enemies of the green peach aphid.
Completing the team are technical officers (TO’s) Rachel Golledge, Surya Dhakal, and Danae Warden.
Rachel Golledge started with the former Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA) as a Technical Officer trainee, working in horticulture, and is now a Technical Officer with the Entomology team, assisting Senior Research scientist Svetlana Micic.
Surya Dhakal, assists Senior Research scientist Ciara Beard in research activities.
Prior to this, as a Field Surveillance Officer, he inspected plants and trees for the polyphagous shot hole borer, set up traps to monitor it and took samples.
Danae Warden assists Research scientist Christiaan Valentine in research activities.
Contact
Dusty Severtson
DPIRD senior research scientist
E: Dustin.Severtson@dpird.wa.gov.au
P: (08) 9690 2160
Svetlana Micic
DPIRD research scientist
E: Svetlana.Micic@dpird.wa.gov.au
P: (08) 9892 8591