Black bugs continue to wreak havoc in Pangasinan

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Black bugs continue to attack rice fields in eastern towns of Pangasinan despite efforts by agriculture technicians and farmers to contain them.

But Nestor Batalla, rice program coordinator of the provincial government, said except in three towns, rice fields in other areas in the province had not been infested yet.

“Based on our monitoring, the black bugs move from one place to another, but they are not causing infestation. More towns have reported sightings of the insects,” Batalla said.

In early December, the parasitic insects, which suck the sap of rice plants, were reported to have attacked rice fields in Asingan, Tayug and San Manuel towns and threatened to infest the towns of San Nicolas, Natividad, San Quintin, Sta. Maria, Balungao, Tayug, Umingan, Binalonan, Sto. Tomas, Alcala and Manaoag, and Urdaneta City.

Batalla said some 800 hectares of rice fields in  Asingan, Tayug and San Manuel had been infested, reducing yield by at least 3 percent.

“This is the first time for our farms to experience black bugs attack,” Batalla said.

He said Gov. Amado Espino Jr. had directed the provincial agriculturist to meet with agriculture officers and farmers to draw up plans to minimize the impact of the attack of black bugs.

Batalla said these insects were not easy to contain.

A black bug, he said, has a seven-month life span. “It lays 40 to 60 eggs, half of them female. But its life cycle, from eggs to nymphs to adult, is quite long. The adult bugs are destructive,” he said.

He said farmers had been organized and had started spraying their crops with Metarhizium anisopliae, a microbial pathogen that attacks black bugs.

“We have also taught farmers how to set up light traps, which is another effective way of eliminating black bugs,” Batalla said.

Light from a 500-watt or 1,000-watt bulb attracts bugs at night. The bugs are then collected in a bag or sack and are burned or buried.

Batalla said severely infested farms would lose about 23 percent of its total production.

He said as a result of the black bug infestation, “when a rice plant bears fruits, these are just white heads, no grain in the panicle (a loose, branching cluster of flowers).”

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said the first reported case of rice black bug attack was in Barangay (village) Bonobono in Bataraza town, southern Palawan province, in 1979.

PhilRice, in its website, said a major outbreak occurred in 1982 in Palawan. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon