Pests

: 27 September 2016; Hits: 9726

Yellow staking strings attract tomato pests, expert warns farmers

Tomato farmers using black threads in supporting the plants off the ground can cut on pest control unlike those using yellow threads, which attract multiple crop enemies.

Most farmers pay little attention to the material provided it serves the purpose.

Supporting every plant with one or two yellow strings turns the greenhouse or open field coloured, therefore, attractive to the pests. This means that they would spend more on controlling the pests

The commonest insects attracted by yellow fruit piercing moths, aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers, thrips, leaf miners, among others.

READ ALSO: Common weed controls crop pests

Amiran Kenya Agronomist Timothy Munywoki said insects are easily identified by light receptors and that is why the colour is used in integrated pest management systems traps.

“Insects will land on the strings and then move to the plant. No amount of chemical application can wipe out the pests because they keep coming back as long as the attraction points are there. This is worse in open fields where the yellow strings turn the area coloured, therefore, susceptible,” he said.

Besides eating into the profits of the farmer, more losses accumulate, application of more pesticides increases diseases risks resulting from the chemical residues.

As an integrated pest management practice, Amiran Kenya has a yellow sticky gel that is pasted on polythene sheets. Hundreds of aphids, whiteflies, beetles, among others are found dead daily.

While beetles drill into the fruits, reducing their quality, heavy infestation of whiteflies and aphids causes shrinking of the leaves. Reduced leaves translate to little food being synthesised for the tomatoes. Leaf miners extract the juice from the leaves, making the plant weak and susceptible to stress.

PHOTO: Kisii University farm manager Peter Ondieki inspects tomatoes at the institution's demonstration farm at the Kisii Agricultural Society of Kenya Show Ground on July 15, 2016. Yellow strings in staking attracts insects to attack tomatoes. Amiran Kenya Agronomist Timothy Munywoki says black is the recommended colour. PHOTO BY LABAN ROBERT.

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: 09 September 2016; Hits: 8109

Coast neem oil farmer offers residents elephantiasis remedy

A Kilifi County farmer is minting neem oil which is increasingly being used to control Coast region’s dreaded disease, elephantiasis, by repelling vector mosquitoes.

Alex Mwangemi makes more than Sh30,000 from one tree after selling one litre of the neem oil at Sh2,000.

Mwangemi harvests seeds twice per year from the neem tree.

“The giant Neem trees require no attention to bear the seeds. One mature tree gives 30kg to 40kg of fresh seeds. One litre of the oil is extracted from four fresh kilos of the seeds,” he said.

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Harvesting 30kg for two rounds yields gives 60kg of fresh seeds. The 60kg in turn yield 15 litres of the oil.

Mosquitoes are common at the Coast region because of the warm climate.

Application on the oil on the skin just like ordinary petroleum jelly repels mosquitoes, which a spread, elephantiasis, malaria, dengue fever, among other diseases.

The oil is helping control elephantiasis because mosquitoes that spread the disease cannot land on a surface having the substance.

Azadirachtin is the active ingredient that gives the neem tree the healing and the repelling properties, according to the US National Pesticide Information Centre.

Mosquitoes attack in the evening, when most people, especially men are enjoying ‘madafu’, the alcoholic extract from green coconut fruits. That is why the people believe the disease is caused by madafu.

The Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi, Tana River and Lamu counties residents little know that while they enjoy madafu in the evening under coconut trees, the mosquitoes bite and spread the disease among them.

The disease later spread to women, who were not in the drinking spree after the mosquito bites. The pool of elephantiasis causing germs- filarial worms- moves to the man who was drinking, then to the family.

The Marikebuni Village farmer also makes cooking briquettes out of the seed husks. Burning briquettes too emit the repellent, therefore, keeping off mosquitoes.

Elephantiasis causes enlarging of body parts served by the lymphatic system. In men, testis are can be enlarged to attain more than five kilos. Lower limps of both men and women balloon to appear as those of an elephant, hence the name elephantiasis.

Mwangemi says the belief that the diseases is caused by madafu is yet to be demystified for the people to accept new remedies.

Mwangemi can be reached on +254724706579.

PHOTO: www.etsy.com

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: 01 September 2016; Hits: 13821

Farmers use weeds to tame crop destroying moles

Farmers are turning to weeds and other tree extracts to eradicate moles and other rodents after finding the method to be cheap and safe for use.

Moles destroy crops by feeding on the roosts or pulling them down for leaves while mice attack grains like maize while on the cobs.

James Mochere, a Nyamira County potato farmer, has grown senna sept tree, whose roots are poisonous. The moles die or move away from the potato field if they survive.

“It is hard to get rid of moles by trapping if they settle on the farm. Use of chemicals to kill the rodents can do the same to humans in case of contamination, therefore, unsafe. Growing the tree, which other farmers consider a weed, has helped me eliminate the rodents,” he said.

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As the moles burrow in the soil in search of food or making resting nests, they chew the roots of the senna sept, which is known as omochegechege in Ekegusii.

Repeated purchase of chemical poison and paying trapping experts proved expensive for Mochere.

He paid Sh30 for every mole caught, yet more remained in the soil to multiply.

For two seasons which he has grown the tree around the one-eighth of an acre of orange fleshed sweet potatoes at Nyansabakwa area, the mole-hills have diminished.

Moles can destroy up to 50 per cent of Irish and sweet potatoes because their food storage is in the roots. Apart from attacking the storage organs and weakening the rooting system, they pull the leaves into their holes.

Mochere learned the trick from other farmers during an International Potato Centre (CIP) workshop, which introduced him to orange fleshed sweet potatoes.

CIP is an international organisation researching on orange fleshed sweet potatoes.

Castor plant is another common weed in farms and in the wild, whose oil repels the pests. The castor seeds are crashed and the oil is mixed with soil, which is put into the burrows or nests. When the moles sense the oil, they move away.

In large farm fields, senna sept can be scattered among the main crops.

PHOTO: James Mochere stands beside one of the many Senna sept trees at his maize field at Nyansabakwa, Nyamira County on August 13, 2016. A mature one with seeds stands behind him. The tree keeps off moles from farms. PHOTO BY LABAN ROBERT.

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