Vetiver Network International Forum


You are not logged in.



#1 2018-11-02 16:52:14


Fall Army Worm (FAW) suppression by vetiver

Fall Army Worm (FAW).  I have just received a note from Johnnie Van Den Berg (Professor at North West University, South Africa), who pioneered the early work on the use of vetiver to control stem borer in maize, with some good news relating to controlling FAW. 

"We found that the army worm larvae cannot survive more than a few days on Vetiver leaves. To be a good trap crop (dead-end-trap crop) Vetiver should be preferred by Army worm moths to lay eggs on and then the hatching larvae should die. We could not show that the moths preferred Vetiver   since the females could not make up their minds on where they wanted to lay eggs!! These moths seem not to be picky about where they lay their eggs. This means that Vetiver on contours (for soil and water conservation) will create a niche for army worm where they can lay eggs and the larvae then die.   So, just as we said with the other stemborers,  I can say it is highly likely that Vetiver will contribute to suppression of army worm populations) - both    directly (moths lay eggs on them) and indirectly (natural enemies such as spiders etc. that love to habitat vetiver)".

I suspect that vetiver also reduces the incidence of stem borer in sugar cane/.


Board footer