UK insect ecologist James Harwood
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Muscat –
Through a partnership with The Research Council (TRC), researchers at a British university are looking at sustainable ways to control the dubas bug infestation in Oman.
Dubas bug, which is said to be responsible for 30 per cent of the losses that date palm farmers incur in the country, last year resulted in widespread damage of the crop prompting the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to spray more than 10,000 acres of agricultural land to check its spread. Entomologists from the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky are looking at biological ways to control the bug, a major pest in Oman.
After a particularly devastating outbreak last year, TRC requested research proposals aimed at controlling the pest and awarded the grant to UK insect ecologist James Harwood. Harwood’s lab is one of only a handful in the world specialising in molecular gut content analysis. Lab researchers dissect insect pests and predators to determine who is eating who in the bug world.
They use the results to determine safe, effective ways to naturally control bugs. The dubas bug, only millimetres in size, is very harmful to the date palm plantations in Oman and surrounding countries. Losses of 30 per cent have been reported in the worst cases, causing a substantial economic impact to the area’s date farmers.
“Through this research, we hope to find predators that consume the dubas bug to help control the population,” said Jamin Dreyer, a UK post-doctoral scholar working on the project. Since the project began, UK scientists have collected DNA samples from dubas bugs. Soon, they will receive potential dubas bug predators collected by their collaborators in Oman. Once they receive the predatory insects and spiders, they will look for the genetic fingerprint of dubas bug inside each specimen.
“The ultimate goal, after all the research is finished, is to get the predators to do the work for you, as biological control agents,” Dreyer said. Biological control is a more environmentally-friendly form of pest control as it relies on natural predators instead of harmful pesticides, which could have implications on plant and human health. TRC recently created a database for ‘Developing an Integrated Management for Dubas Bug’.
H E Dr Fuad bin Jaafar bin Mohammed al Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, said, “We need all efforts to tackle the dubas bug infestation. With this project, we hope the impact of dubas bug will be reduced to the minimum. This database will not only be useful for researchers in the sultanate but also for other countries whose agricultural production has been hit by the bug.”
Read more: http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/UK-university-explores-biological-ways-to-tackle-dubas-bug-menace-40×3#ixzz3aHC4p51D
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