Army Worm

I remember in the early 1970's, there was a lot of work being done, studying army worms, at I.C.I.P.E. ( the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi).   Now there is a new threat.   

This shows people in Vihiga, which was only a couple of miles from where I used to live at Maseno, about 25 miles west of Kisumu.    It was an article in the Daily Telegraph a few days ago, about a slightly different caterpillar called the Fall Army Worm, which has somehow crossed the Atlantic and is now present in Africa.  It reports that this caterpillar can devastate maize crops almost overnight.  

Subsistence farmers can be ruined if this 'worm' gets onto their crops.  The moths can travel more than 60 miles in a night, lay 1,000 to 1,500 eggs, which hatch out into the caterpillars, which then munch their way through maize, millet, sorghum and other crops.  

Genetically modified crops have an immunity to the pest, but these are not grown in most of Africa, because of cost.   Many subsistence farmers keep some of their best maize seeds to plant the following year.   

Eradicating hunger in Africa could be put at grave risk because of this 'worm' ....