Banana and Plantain Farmers Urged to Contact Banana Board for Help with Pest Eradication

Banana and plantain farmers experiencing crop pest infestation are being urged to contact the Banana Board for assistance in eradicating these parasites.

General Manager, Janet Conie, says bananas are affected by several pests and disease agents that affect different sections of the plant.

One of the most prevalent is the borer weevil, also known as the banana borer, which eats large areas of the corm within banana plants.

“The major one we ask farmers to look for and mitigate… is the banana borer weevil. When you chop the bottom [of infested trees], you will see black areas. When that happens, the roots can’t grow and come out [and] the plants can’t anchor very well; so in a wind [they] will blow over,” Mrs. Conie informed.

Mrs. Conie, who was speaking during a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) television programme, ‘Get the Facts’, said chopping up the banana plant will give affected farmers a chance to see the level of weevil infestation.

If the levels of borer weevil are high, as soon as farmers chop up the affected plants, treatment should be administered.

“If you do not know, you can call us and we will come and help. But if you have too much weevil, then you need to treat that as soon as you chop up. Chopping up encourages the weevils, because they smell all of this activity and the sumptuous food that they eat, and they come,” she stated.

To combat this, farmers should move the debris away from the mat (banana plant), to prevent weevils from entering the root zone.

Mrs. Conie informed that treatment is two-fold and entails utilising insecticides and traps.

“The insecticide is called ‘Actara’, and it will do [the job] very quickly. You use about two packets for an acre, mix it in two five-gallon containers and you use just a small amount – 50 ml to each mat. However, what we also encourage farmers to do is to use some biological control naturally,” she added.

Mrs. Conie pointed out that, “because you have all these pseudo stems (trunks) that you need to chop up, you have all these that are going to be left, [and] these will attract borers”.

“So, we are encouraging them to set up borer traps. This incorporates chopping sections of the trunk lengthwise, turning the cut sections up in the field to bring the borer out and away from the banana plants, and [thereafter] the birds will eat the weevil they see,” she further indicated.

To report borer weevil infestations, persons can contact the Banana Board at 876-922-5490/876-922-4327.