Profile Lachlan Mannes

Bug lord and beekeeper Lachlan Mannes is both friend and foe to Sunraysia’s bug populations.

The director of Mannes Entomology, Lachie is a wealth of knowledge and a guiding light for the region’s horticulture producers, scouting for pests and diseases throughout the year and assisting growers with their pest and disease management programs.

When and how did your career begin and what path did it take? I did a degree in agricultural science in Adelaide back in the 1990s and majored in plant entomology. At the end of that I came back to Mildura. The Department of Agriculture, as it was known back then, got me to do a bit of work on pistachios, as well as editing a magazine. Then Horticulture Pest Management Services was looking for someone, so I worked with them. When they folded, I went to work with Fruit Doctors for a while, and then I went out on my own after that.

What industries have you been involved in?

Citrus, wine grapes, table grapes, a little bit of pomegranate and avocados. This year we’re doing cherries. There are so many others!

What key areas within these industries, particularly in table grapes, have you focused on? We mainly focus on the pest and disease side of things. The main diseases would be powdery mildew and botrytis, not so much downy mildew. With pests, light brown apple moth and mealybug are the two main ones that growers hate. When we’re going through the patches, if we notice something is not growing right or has nutrient deficiencies we’ll notify, but pest and diseases are our main concern.

What changes have you noticed in the table grape industry throughout your career?

The biggest change is the tightening up of chemical use and the banning of chemicals. We’ve really noticed that as you get toward the end of the season and you get a late emergence of mealybug or apple moth flying in we’re really running out of things that we can use to control them with without ruining all the export markets. A lot of the stuff you’ve only got until pea-size or flowering and then you can’t use it. That late season stuff is tricky – you can walk into a patch and walk out because you have nothing you can do. That’s really frustrating! From our perspective, we feel bad, but from a grower’s point of view, they put all their effort into their block and with a late emergence there’s nothing they can do. That’s definitely the biggest thing I’ve seen change.

What do you see for the future of the table grape industry in regard to pest & disease management? I can see a lot of research being done on pheromones and attractants – attractant traps etc. – otherwise it’ll just be growers swinging.

What is your advice to growers? If growers don’t have scouts on their properties, it’s a matter of not putting pests and disease management last. Growers can’t put the bugs off. When it comes to the bug side of things, if they don’t have a pest scout they need to lock it in every fortnight and go for a walk. Get in there and have a look, know what you’re looking for and don’t skip it. v