False Coddling Moth (FCM) is a quarantine pest that causes significant crop damage in roses. False codling moth (FCM) has led to some interceptions in the market, making growers unable to export their cut flowers translating into loses.
Tuta absoluta is a species of moth in family Gelechidae known by common name tomato leafminer or tomato pin worm. Tuta is a serious and devastating pest of tomatoes and a major concern in tomato growing zones of Kenya.
Thrips cause silver spots on the leaves that make the produce unfit for marketing. When present in large numbers they cause plants to become stunted and may also transmit virus diseases. They can be a major problem in greenhouses.
Pests and diseases can ruin your coffee crop. An infestation or outbreak that is badly handled can mean financial hardship or even devastation. But do you know which pests are the greatest threats? And how do you identify them?
Although stink bugs have several species, the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula, is the dominant species found in the nut trees. It has piercing sucking mouthparts consisting of a long beak like structure called rostrum. Its life cycle is 65- 70 days and the females can lay up to 260 eggs which are deposited on the underside of the leaves.
Sugarcane Yellow Aphids are ferocious pest that is give farmers in sugarcane growing areas nightmares. They also attack sorghum causing a lot of damage.
In the recent years one of the key challenges facing Maize farming in Kenya has been infestation of Maize crops by Fall Armyworm.
Many thrips species are pests of commercially important crops. Some species of thrips are beneficial as pollinators or as predators of other insects or mites. In the right conditions, such as in greenhouses, many species can exponentially increase in population size and form large swarms because of a lack of natural predators coupled with their ability to reproduce asexually, making them an irritation to humans.
Mango Fruit-Piercing Moth is an adult pest of ripe and ripening fruits whose adult moth flies at night and sucks out the juices of fruits with its proboscis. The fruit doesn’t have to be fully ripe as long as its skin is soft enough to be pierced by the moth.
Mango Gall Midge is a major pest of mango and is found in all mango growing countries of the world whose feeding induces the formation of small galls, which look like pimples on the leaves. Serious outbreaks of Mango Gall Midge result in defoliation and reduced fruit yield.
Onion thrips are the most important insect pests of onions, which cause significant economic losses, by reducing yields up to about 60%.Their damage to young onions is more devastating than on larger plants late in the growing season. However, thrips feeding opens up the onion to secondary infections.
Rose aphids, also known as greenfly or blackfly are sap-sucking tiny pear-shaped insects with slender legs that live in colonies on the underside of rose bush leaves and flower buds. They reproduce very fast, leading to massive infestations and entirely covering new shoots if left untreated. This can cause serious damage to the crop.
