While farmers have been warned to prepare for a second strike over the course of the next two weeks, Dr Gerhard Verdoorn (operations and stewardship manager at Croplife) said that the African Army Worm is a seasonal pest and that colder temperatures will have an effect on its life cycle.

He added that no sightings have been reported in the Mpumalanga region since the first outbreak but that warmer areas are at risk of another outbreak.

“A massive outbreak has been reported in the Kalahari, with a farmer from Vryburg losing 11 000 hectares of grazing. It’s unlikely that colder regions will be so heavily infested, but farmers should scan their fields at dusk for moths, as an influx of caterpillar moths will indicate whether they have larvae in their fields.”

Verdoorn added that the African Army Worm is endemic to South Africa and that these massive outbreaks are only experienced occasionally.

“It’s an endemic species and a summer insect, and the last time we witnessed a strike of this magnitude was 13 years ago. The autumn army worm, however, which made its arrival in South Africa in 2018, has flourished in South Africa due to the fact that it is resilient to our cold seasons, and is seen as a pest throughout the year, every year. The autumn army worm does immense damage to maize crops, with the exception of BTG maize, which has chemical properties that protect it from the army worm.”