Daraa-Sana
The Daraa Agriculture Directorate called on farmers to monitor their crops after the occurrence of autumn crowd pest infestations on the maize crop in Tafas town.
The head of the plant protection department in the directorate, Eng. Hassan Al-Smadi, said in a statement to the SANA reporter today that the pest feeds on all kinds of vegetables and crops and causes a decrease in productivity and is classified among the dangerous pests that appeared in Africa and gradually moved until it reached farmers' fields in Syria.
And that the pest has an integrated control program that will be circulated to farmers to prevent the transfer to crops, especially vegetables, calling on farmers to review the extension units when noticing this type of pest to conduct the required control.
Al-Smadi explained that the length of the full larva of this pest ranges between 4 and 5 cm, while the eggs are laid in clumps of 50 to 200 eggs, and the larvae generally appear 3 to 5 days after laying eggs and migrate to the funnel, stressing that the life cycle of the autumn crowd pest completes Within 30 days in optimum conditions.
The autumn crowd is an insect pest that can infect more than 80 plant species and cause severe damage to crops. The larval stage of the insect is the harmful phase, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
