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Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), a highly destructive and fast spreading agricultural pest native to North and South America, poses a real threat to global food security. In this paper, to explore the dynamics and implications of fall armyworm outbreak in a field of maize biomass, we propose a new dynamical system for maize biomass and fall armyworm interaction via Caputo fractional-order operator, which is not only a nonlocal operator but also contains all characteristics concerned with memory of the dynamical system. We define the basic reproduction number, which represents the average number of newborns produced by one individual female moth during its life span. We establish that the basic reproduction number is a threshold quantity, which determines persistence and extinction of the pest. Finally, we simulate the Caputo system using the Adam–Bashforth–Moulton method to illustrate the main results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]