Pests, weeds & diseases

Pests, weeds and diseases pose a serious risk for primary producers as they can impact on market access and agricultural production.

To reduce the impact of pests, weeds and diseases, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development:

  • works with landholders, grower groups, community groups and biosecurity groups.
  • provides diagnostic services and information on prevention, management and treatment.
  • provides biosecurity and quarantine measures to prevent introduction, and to eradicate or manage current pests.

For advice on pests, weeds and diseases search our website, the Western Australian Organism List or contact our Pest and Disease Information Service (PaDIS).

For diagnostic services, please contact our Diagnostic Laboratory Services.

Articles

  • Herbicide performance can vary greatly depending on a number of factors. These can include compatibility of herbicides, water quality, sprayer decontamination and controlling stressed weeds.

  • Seed dressing and in-furrow fungicides contain active ingredients for the control or suppression of seed-borne diseases, some fungal foliar diseases and some fungal root rots in cereal crops.

  • Information is provided here to assist management of diseases and viruses that occur in broadacre crops grown in Western Australia - cereals (wheat, barley, oats and triticale), pulses (field pea,

  • Windmill grass (Chloris truncata) is a native species and is the tenth most common summer weed species in the Western Australian wheatbelt.

  • Annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) is one of the most serious and costly weeds of annual winter cropping systems in southern Australia.

  • Leaf spot diseases affecting wheat in Western Australia are septoria nodorum blotch, yellow spot and septoria tritici blotch.

  • Doublegee or spiny emex is a significant weed in Western Australia. It is a vigorous annual herb with a strong tap root and a long, fleshy, hairless stem.

  • Herbicide resistance is the inherited ability of an individual plant to survive a herbicide application that would kill a normal population of the same species.

  • Cereal smut and bunt diseases are caused by fungi which parasitise the host plant and produce masses of soot-like spores in the leaves, grains or ears.

  • This fact sheet has been prepared to provide information about a new barley leaf rust pathotype detected in Western Australia in 2016.