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Wasps To Fight Cassava Disease
04 August 2010
THAILAND – Entomologists in the Asian nation of Thailand have begun deploying an army of 250,000 wasps in a bid to eradicate a plague of mealy bugs that threatens to destroy much of the country's $1.5 billion (£942 million) cassava crop.
The New York Times reported that scientists expect the tiny wasps, each no larger than the head of a pin, to home in on the pest, piercing its outer membrane and devouring it from within.This development comes as the latest battle in an ongoing war between farmers and predators for the crops, which mealy bugs rely on exclusively for nourishment, while the wasps feed only on the cassava-ravaging pest.
"In that sense, it's the perfect biological control," said Rod Lefroy, regional research coordinator for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.
Meanwhile, in Fiji, more than $100,000 worth of harvested cassava was dumped across three districts in the Macuata region last year, as a result of failed marketing arrangements, the Fiji Times reported in July.
TheCropSite News Desk
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