Black Bugs Infest Albay Rice Fields

LEGAZPI CITY (2 March 2010) - RICE FARMERS in a village in Oas, Albay endured sleepless nights and kept watch on a mercury bulb that drew thousands of Rice Black Bugs (RBB) or locally known as "itom na Tayangao" which had infested more than 690 hectares of ricefields in the third district of Albay province.

Albay Agriculture official, Ruben Limos, said the farmers are doing "light-trapping" which drew the bugs to the mercury light while the farmers gather the pest in sacks and dispose of them.

It was also noted that farmers also pray the "Oracion Imperata" a hispanic-prayer recited to ask for divine-intervention to ward-off pest and bad weather.

According to Limos, the local agriculture office and the Department of Agriculture (DA) have sent technicians to help farmers spray pesticides in rice fields, mostly in the towns of Guinobatan, Oas, Libon, Polangui and Ligao in the third district of Albay where the infestation is prevalent.

DA experts said the rice bugs are relatively new in Bikol; they attack the stems of the maturing palay, and within days the palay dries-up and withers.

The mounting population of the pest is also attributed to the ecological imbalance, changing weather patterns, and the current dry-spell, DA experts added.

DA records showed the Rice Black Bug first infested ricelands in Palawan in 1972 after the insects were reported to have followed bright lights aboard vessels from Sabah, Indonesia bound for the Philippines.

In the Bikol region, the pests were recorded to have first appeared in rice fields in Sorsogon province in 2004. (SONNY SALES)