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More than 200 million parasitic wasps were bred and released by the authorities in the context of nearly 600 hectares of coconut being damaged by black-headed caterpillars.

The information was announced by Mr. Vo Van Nam, Head of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Ben Tre on December 11. The number of bees was released in batches in districts and cities. The two main parasitic wasp species raised are Habrobracon hebetor and Trichospilus pupivorus.

Parasitic wasps and larvae are raised in the laboratory, after hatching, they are put into plastic bottles with holes drilled into them and hung on coconut trees in the garden.

According to Mr. Nam, the instinct of female bees when encountering black-headed caterpillar larvae in the wild is to inject a paralyzing toxin and then lay eggs on their bodies. After half a month, each parasitic black-headed caterpillar will hatch 10-50 young bees. On average, a female wasp lives more than 20 days and lays about 100 eggs.

Last year, Ben Tre also released more than 370 million parasitic wasps to kill black-headed caterpillars.

Mr. Nam said that the province has more than 80,000 hectares of coconut, currently about 600 hectares are infected with black-headed caterpillars. Thanks to the application of parasitic wasp release measures, some coconut areas in Mo Cay Nam and Thanh Phu districts have begun to recover at a rate of about 70%.

The functional sector often takes advantage of the rainy season to release parasitic wasps because this time has favorable conditions for the development of this species, while being unfavorable for black-headed caterpillars.

To effectively kill insects, the Ben Tre Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection recommends that people clean their gardens, collect, prune and destroy leaves damaged by pests. After spraying pesticides, parasitic wasps can be released two weeks or more after that, from this point on, farmers need to stop spraying to protect the bee colony.

Black-headed caterpillars have the scientific name Opisina arenosella Walker, originating from India and Sri Lanka. In the world, this insect has been recorded in 16 countries. Because the larvae age up to 40 days compared to 10-30 days in other pests, when they are in a place, they will eat everything, causing the trees to die en masse.

Ben Tre province has 80% of the coconut gardens in the West, 50% of the coconut area in the country. More than 2/3 of the local people (800,000 people) rely on income from coconut trees to stabilize their family economy. Four years ago, black-headed caterpillars began to appear in the province, then spread throughout the area, the most severe time causing about 1,000 hectares of coconuts to be infected.

Source: https://vnexpress.net/ben-tre-tha-hon-200-trieu-ong-ky-sinh-diet-sau-dau-den-4826694.html