An insect that sucks the sap out of cactus plants has been trialled in East Africa to contain the spread of an invasive cactus species that threatens local grazing areas.
The cochineal bug, known as dudu in Swahili, for biological control has been released on farmland in Kenya's Laikipia region, which is used by Maasai for livestock herding. The trial showed that the dudu bug feeds exclusively on the Opuntia stricta cactus, better known as prickly pear, which has invaded grasslands and drives out local plants used to feed cattle.
...
AllAfrica Subscription Content
You must be an allAfrica.com subscriber for full access to certain content.
You have selected an article from the AllAfrica archive, which requires a subscription. You can subscribe by visiting our subscription page. Or for more information about becoming a subscriber, you can read our subscription and contribution overview.
For information about our premium subscription services:
You can also freely access - without a subscription - hundreds of today's top Africa stories and thousands of recent news articles from our home page »
Already a subscriber? Sign in for full access to article