Taitung DARES Develops 'White General' Fungus to Combat Organic Rice Pests

(Central News Agency, reporter Wang Shufen, Taipei, 5th) The rice bug (Leptocorisa chinensis) causes significant damage to organic rice during the heading stage. Taitung DARES has developed a native strain of Beauveria bassiana, playfully named 'White General' (Bai Jiangjun), which can serve as a natural enemy to effectively control the pest.

Taitung DARES held a press conference at the Ministry of Agriculture today to announce the research results.

Taitung DARES explained that the rice bug is widely distributed across Taiwan's plains and low-to-mid altitude mountainous areas. Its host plants are mainly grasses, including rice and millet. Previously, there was no effective control method other than chemical pesticides.

Taitung DARES discovered that after paddy fields in Guanshan Township transitioned to organic cultivation, during the heading stage of the second crop season of 2023, a large number of rice bugs gathered on rice panicles in organic fields near mountainous areas or primary forests, causing damage by sucking sap. Infested grains developed brown-black spots, forming 'spotted rice', which easily breaks during milling, severely reducing quality.

Taitung DARES tested oil-based control materials permitted in organic agriculture, but the results were unsatisfactory. Later, during field surveys, they found rice bug samples that had been infected and killed by entomopathogenic fungi. Taitung DARES noted that this microbial natural enemy was more likely to appear under the fungicide-free environmental conditions after transitioning to organic cultivation.

After isolating and purifying the collected samples, Taitung DARES obtained the 'Beauveria bassiana BB1031' strain. Field trials during the first and second crop seasons of 2025 confirmed that the field infection rate of the insects could reach over 70%, effectively controlling both adult and nymph rice bugs, and reducing the spotted rice rate by over 40%. This provides rice farmers with a new, eco-friendly control method. (Editor: Chen Renhua) 1150605