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Is there any displacement of indigenous pests of maize/sorghum by invasive #Fall armyworm?
Vinod Kukanur| December 23, 2020|
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Region: > South Asia
Categorized:
Tagged:
Is there any displacement of indigenous pests of maize/sorghum by invasive #Fall armyworm?
Last modified: December 23, 2020
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Yes such displacements may take place when biopesticides are used by the farmers.
Before #Fall armyworm invaded Ghana in 2016, African armyworm was one of the major pest of maize in the African sub region. as it stands, no African armyworm (Spodoptera exempta) have been found during FAW sampling since 2017 till date(2020) by the #CABI action on invasive team. There was a report on a worm infestation on the Cape coast stadium lawn which was suspected to be a likely African armyworm attack in 2017.
When I was in Kitale, Kenya in November 2019 I was told that there was an outbreak of African armyworm in the nearby vicinity. This was just from speaking with the farmers though – unfortunately we did not have time to scout for the African armyworm ourselves, and confirm the sightings. Your post also reminded me of a paper I read recently, which looked at natural enemy communities and habitat. In simple habitats such as agriculture, natural enemies which are generalists (attack many different kinds of prey) tend to do better than specialists. This is a widely accepted ecological theory… Read more »