Other disease management practices will be important in reducing the damage caused by STB: (i) Continuing breeding for resistance, particularly that which relies upon a broad genetic base, rather than single STB genes, will allow us to capitalise on recent advances in this area; (ii) improving STB forecasting abilities based upon more climate variables will better inform decision making with regards to the timing of fungicide application (te Beest et al., 2009b); (iii) better understanding of the “behaviour” of Z. tritici on and in the leaf, in terms of both leaf penetration and subsequent sporulation, will both inform fungicide choice and also timing of application; (iv) the practice of burning of above ground wheat stem residue/stubble post-harvest merits revisiting. Stubble-retention has been practiced in EU for the past 19 years for economic and smoke pollution reasons. However, stubble provides an ideal reservoir for Z. tritici survival (and that of other Dothideomycete plant-pathogens) between growing seasons, and for the build-up of inoculum to infect newly planted wheat. (v) Alternative host species need to be eradicated from the vicinity of the crop. Z. tritici has been recorded on 26 grasses, as collated by Suffert et al. (2011) and on one non-graminaceous weed (chickweed; Prestes and Hendrix, 1978). However, of these, only six grass species have been validated as alternative hosts of STB in at least two independent studies (Suffert et al., 2011). Thus, the risk posed by alternate hosts, and its importance, is currently unclear. A closer evaluation of the risk of this fungus “host hopping” from wheat onto volunteer grass species and then back onto new crops is merited.