Dr Partho Dhang shares his experience of the 2024 Pacific Rim Termite Research Group Conference that took place in Manila in March.
Pacific Rim Termite Research Group
The Pacific Rim Termite Research Group (PRTRG) was founded in 2004 to foster relationships and initiate purposeful collaborative research amongst countries neighbouring the Pacific rim. The PRTRG creates a forum for linking universities, research institutions and the pest management industry, to accelerate the pace of mutually beneficial basic and applied research of termite biology and management. The PRTRG Conference, typically held every two years, is a highlight of the PRTRG events calendar.
The Pacific Rim Termite Research Group (PRTRG) Conference wrapped up its 15th event in Manila, Philippines on March 13, 2024. The conference saw a record number of people attending, with 192 participants hailing from 13 countries, including Australia, China, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, USA, and Vietnam.
The highlight of the conference was the attendance of Jim Creffield, one of the founding members of the PRTRG. Twenty years ago, Mr Creffield along with Dr. Kunio Tsunoda (Kyoto University, Japan) and Dr Michael Lenz (formerly CSIRO) formed this group to encourage young scientists from the Pacific Rim countries to initiate collaborative research projects.
Another highlight of the conference was seeing the PRTRG travel fund being awarded to five young scientists working in this field.
The conference hosted a number of sessions with the keynote speech being followed by two special sessions: ‘Kunio Tsunoda Memorial Lecture’ and ‘Special Termite Talk’.
Keynote presentation
The keynote lecture was delivered by Prof. Hou-Feng Li, distinguished professor at the Department of Entomology, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. His talk highlighted how researchers are limited by access to private buildings, which hampers research on urban termite pests. He emphasised the success of the citizen science project in Taiwan, which demonstrated a viable approach for studying urban termites. Taking a collaborative approach, pest management professionals together with members of the public collected over 3,000 termite samples between 2015 and 2020. This initiative revealed the composition of termite pests in each prefecture and their dispersal flight seasons, also identifying three potential invasive pests in the process.
Kunio Tsunoda Memorial Lecture
Three experts delivered the presentation entitled ‘Kunio Tsunoda Memorial Lecture’. The first speaker, Prof. Chow-Yang Lee from the University of California, Riverside, USA, spoke about the historical and current perspectives surrounding the use of liquid termiticides, clarifying the various types of termiticides, distinctions between repellent and non-repellent termiticides, and factors impacting their effectiveness. Prof. Lee’s talk was significant for termite professionals, as this method of applying termiticides to soil remains a preferred method of treatment.
Prof. Lee was followed by Prof. Edward Vargo from the Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, USA, who enlightened the audience about invasive termites. Using a panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), Prof. Vargo demonstrated the invasion history of Coptotermes formosanus through approximate Bayesian computation. The study found a complex invasion history, with initial introductions to Hawaii serving as the source for later incursions in southeastern areas of the USA. A separate incursion event in Florida was the result of C. formosanus that had travelled from South-Central China.
The final speaker in this session was Prof. Menandro Acda from the Department of Forest Products and Paper Science, University of the Philippines, Los Baños, Philippines, who spoke about the performance of soil termiticides in the Philippines. He discussed his work looking at how moisture, temperature, soil properties and microbial communities common in tropical climates effectively determine the longevity of soil termiticides.
Special Termite Talk
The presentation entitled ‘Special Termite Talk’, which covered the latest termite research and global challenges, was delivered by two distinguished experts. The first speaker was Prof. Vernard Lewis, an Emeritus Professor of Cooperative Extension in the Rausser College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley, USA. Prof. Lewis spoke about the global concerns regarding drywood termites. His presentation outlined novel means of detecting drywood termite infestations, however in conclusion he highlighted that these methods have yielded mixed results.
The second speaker was Dr Don Ewart, Consulting Entomologist at The Institute of Pest Risk Management, Australia. Dr Ewart emphasised the importance of methodologies in deriving conclusive results, making the audience aware of the fact that an unsuitable product may be passed as fit for purpose if tests are incorrectly executed.
The two special sessions were then followed by three sessions of presentations from scientists and researchers, with topics including ‘Biodiversity, Ecology, and Behaviour’, ‘Physiology, Morphology, and Structure’, and ‘Economic Impact and Innovative Management’. A total of 14 papers were presented across two days.
Conference sponsors
The highlight of the second day was the session dedicated to the sponsors. Four of the six sponsors presented on the theme ‘Innovation in Termite Management’. Motoyuki Sasaki from ZMCP, Japan, introduced a novel termiticide Metamisalt 20SC, containing dicloromezotiaz, a new active in the global termite control market. Metamisalt is a non-repellent and slow-acting termiticide with excellent transfer effect through the grooming behaviour of termites. Utilising this transfer effect, Metamisalt demonstrated colony elimination performance in a trial conducted in infested residential structures.
Next up was a presentation on laboratory and field evaluation of selected plant polyphenolic extracts by Berkem Biosolutions, presented by Florent Chopinet. This was followed by a presentation from Ensystex, delivered by Steve Broadbent, who introduced a new product called Hydrotrail, a termite guiding chemical. The final presentation was from LEADS Environmental Science introducing a variant of Termatrac and bifenthrin-based soil termiticides.
The period after lunch on the second day was kept for an excursion and a chance for attendees to interact. Delegates left the cosy air-conditioned conference room and joined a half-day excursion trip to the old city of Intramuros followed by a quick stopover at the beach to take in the sunset over Manila Bay, marking the end of the conference. The gala dinner and closing event at the Century Park Hotel saw delegates coming together with invited visitors, who were presented with mementos and tokens of appreciation.
The successful arrangement of the PRTRG 15 conference was made possible by its sponsors: Alog and Company Inc., Ensystex, Gchem Trading Corporation, Groupe Berkem France, LEADS Environmental Health Products Corp., ZM Crop Protection Corporation and Novicide Inc.
Termite professionals wanting to learn about the latest in termite research and connect with termite researchers can attend the next PRTRG Conference, to be held in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2026.
Partho Dhang, Urban Entomologist and Chairman of the Organising Committee
