Wasps released to control mealy bugs
If you went anywhere over the weekend you no doubt encountered the men and women in orange who were manning the quarantine points on the highways to stop people from transporting plants which could spread the Pink Hibiscus Mealy Bug. Today the Ministry of Agriculture has brought in the heavy artillery in the battle: wasps. The tiny insects are the main organism used for controlling the Pink Hibiscus Mealy Bug and will take over from the ladybug beetles which have been on the front lines since last week. Entomologist Orlando Sosa and his team are working overtime this evening to release the wasps. They may not be plentiful but according to Sosa, they are powerful.
Orlando Sosa, Entomologist
“They definitely do not sting humans and they don’t sting animals as well, but they will be able to sting the mealy bugs. When they sting the mealy bugs what they will be putting inside them is an egg and when the egg hatches it becomes a little worm. The worm will eat out the inside of the mealy bug, killing the mealy bug.
After a few days, out of that worms will hatch a new wasp and then that wasp will go and search for more mealy bugs, sting them, lay its eggs inside and that’s how we will get control eventually.
We have selected certain sites in the city where we are going to be putting these so we’re not looking at the person or whose house, but we are looking at the site itself to see whether it’s the best site to produce, multiply these in the field as naturally as we can get it.
We’re asking the public to cooperate with us. They will see some bags set up on hibiscus, those bags will contain the wasps and we’re asking, especially children, who are more curious than others, not to bother the insects so they can do their work. After a few days we’ll open the bags and the wasps will come out and spread all over the city.
Because of the small nature of these insects they are very susceptible to Malathion which is what they use for the mosquito control program. So if they get sprayed, they die and then we don’t have the control and then we have to try to import more. And it’s very costly to do that.”
Sources tell News Five a large number of the ladybug beetles deployed last week were inadvertently killed during mosquito spraying in the Port Loyola area. Because of the mishap every effort is being made to protect today’s wasp release. The Ministry of Agriculture says the wasps will eventually flood the entire city and while it will take some time, they are optimistic that the situation will be brought under control. Wasps will also be released in Belmopan, but distribution is limited since the Ministry was only able to import two thousand five hundred wasps. The Ministry is asking the public to continue to cooperate with the quarantine checkpoints throughout the country by not transporting plant material. The Pink Mealy Bug has also been found in San Pedro and Hopkins.
