By YOLANDA Z. SOTELO

I KNOW, Halloween’s over and creepy tales are out of season. But this is not a ghost story. It’s about well, creepy creatures – those that belong to “low forms of life” but who have a role to play in the web of life.

Yup – I’m talking (writing) about those crawling and flying insects which could give one a real scare. They do make your hair rise, don’t they? Much more than those scary, corny ghost stories can ever do.

Example: The earthworm. Sure we learned in the elementary grades that they are a gardener’s best friend. But when you find them in the soil, you’d wish they’d hide from your view forever. Yicks!

Then there are those flying creatures that find their way to your bedrooms and buzz around? Not all are creepy though. Fireflies are beautiful insects and my kids and I love watching as they gracefully flutter around. (There’s a scary side to the fireflies, though, such as when the kids ask what gives them the power to light their, well, light. Which leads to questions like, do electric eel use electrical power? Can they electrocute you? But that’s for another column.)

Now, let’s go to the real corny story. Did you know that the provincial government is vigorously pushing for the use of insects to combat pests affecting cornfields?

Yes, sireee. It is back to the basic for corn farmers in this province with the provincial government vigorously pushing for the use of biological control methods to combat pests affecting cornfields.

Governor Victor Agbayani said there was a need implement the Integrated Pest Management, one component of which is biological control method, as a measure to protect the environment and as an alternative for the farmers who cannot afford the expensive commercial pesticides.

Provincial Agriculturist Jose Almendares said his office has been mass producing friendly insect earwigs (Euborellia annulipes) which feeds on all stages (eggs and adults) of corn borers, and which will be sold to corn farmers starting this planting season.

Almendares said earwigs is better than trichogramma, another kind of friendly insect used to control corn pests, because earwigs can eat even the adult corn borers while trichogramma feeds only on eggs..

Trichogramma, already used in about 3,000 hectares of corn fields in Pangasinan, is not effective anymore when the corn plants are 20 days old, because by then the corn borers have hatched, he explained.

“From 18-20 days, farmers can use trichogramma. From 21st day onwards, they must use earwigs,” Almendares said.

Trichogramma, according to a website, seeks out eggs, but does not feed on or harm vegetation. It is effective tool because it kills its host before the plant can be damaged
Both earwigs and trichogramma are beneficial to agriculture at whatever level, he added.
A total of 100 3 x 4 cardboards (with thousands of trichogramma eggs) is hanged on corn leaves and when hatched, will eat corn borer eggs. Each card cost P3 so the farmer will spend P300 for a hectare of field.

“If they will use chemicals, they would need P3,000 for a hectare of corn field. So farmers will save a lot if they use trichogramma,” Almendares said.
For earwigs, one piece of this insect can protect a one-meter area, thus a hectare would need 10,000 earwigs. The provincial government has not determined how much it would sell the insect yet.

“But definitely, it will cost much less than chemical pesticides,” Almendares said.
Farmers must not use pesticides in corn fields with the insects because they will die.
But it’s sad that the Department of Agriculture has allowed the commercialization of Bt corn which is immune to corn borers.

But a bag of Bt corn needed to plant in a hectare costs P5,000 and is beyond th reach of many farmers, Almendares said.

“Besides, the corn borer will become immune in the long run and Bt corn will be susceptible to the pest,” he noted.

The provincial agriculture office cultures both beneficial insects at the Regional Crop Protection Center biological control laboratory in Sta. Barbara.

Hey! Do I have corn farmers for readers?