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Eastern Cape preparing for armyworm battle

14 Feb 2017

A war room to combat armyworms is being set up in the Eastern Cape. The arrival of the crop-ravaging Brazilian fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, appears to be imminent, Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane said yesterday.

Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren via Wikimedia Commons

"An attack can start at any time," Qoboshiyane said.

The worms do not merely eat the leaves, like the African worm outbreak in 2013, they kill plants, he said.

Last month, the worms swept down from Zambia and Zimbabwe across North West and Limpopo and two days ago entered the Free State.

An effective pesticide was being identified, agriculture deputy director- general Leon Coetzee said.

There are 42,500 hectares of government-supported maize and small garden crops at risk, Qoboshiyane said.

In its moth stage, the insect can fly hundreds of kilometres.

Qoboshiyane was interviewed after a meeting of crop scientists and entomologists at Dohne Agricultural Development Institute near Stutterheim yesterday.

Source: Herald

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