Besides bedbugs, another bug is wreaking havoc this fall: the evil bug. It attacks the crops of Gers and Tarn-et-Garonne. Farmers are helpless in the face of this new scourge.
It’s the new nightmare for farmers in the region: evil bugs. Arriving from Asia via the transport of goods 5-6 years ago, these insects are swarming in the Gers and Tarn-et-Garonne, helped by global warming.
Read: The evil bug: an unwanted newcomer in France, we tell you how to manage it
No selection for diabolical bug larvae. Kiwi, nuts, pears… They attack a wide variety of fruits but also vegetables and large crops in other departments of the region, such as the Lot. In the Gers these are the cereals who are affected.
Françoise Roch is an apple producer in Tarn-et-Garonne. Every day, she sees the damage caused by the bites of this insect. “If you pick an apple, you immediately see the impacts on it”, shows the arborist. “On this one, there are 2-3, they are due to the bite of the evil bug. Inside, it looks like there is a small piece of cork. And the fruit no longer grows where it was pricked, which makes apples all dented.”
The sting of the diabolical stink bug causes craters on the surface and a “corky” effect inside the fruit. • © FTV
This year, 30% of its apples are affected. The fruit remains edible but will be downgraded when sold. “In the market it will not sell because people buy with their eyes”she laments. “Same in supermarkets where customers choose their fruit.” These apples will then be sold to the industry to be transformed into juice or compote. A certain loss of income for producers. “They will be bought from us for between 7 and 10 cents”specifies Françoise Roch. “Whereas if we had sold them fresh, we would have received between 40 and 50 cents.”
For the moment, the profession does not know how to protect itself against the parasite. Unlike other bedbugs, the devilish bedbug has no natural predator in France. “It’s very difficult to predict how it will evolve”alerts Jean-Louis Sagnes, the arboriculture technical advisor of the Chamber of Agriculture of Tarn-et-Garonne.
*“It can attack all kinds of crops and remains present from spring to fall. It is therefore not possible to use phytosanitary products over such a long period.” The latter are also prohibited from using, so you have to make do with what you have at hand. “The idea is to close the plot with nets, put the apple trees in a cage to prevent the bugs from getting inside”suggests Jean-Louis Sagnes. “It’s relatively expensive but it remains the most effective. Afterwards, we can make the yard as unattractive as possible for bedbugs by keeping the grass mowed.”
Without a real solution, counting insects allows us to know their evolution and proliferation. In 2022, 120,000 evil bugs were recorded in the 20 traps installed by the Chamber of Agriculture. This is 50 times more than the previous year. A multiplication which can also be explained by global warming: these long hot and dry summers are particularly favorable to it. “It’s a lot of calamity”reacts Françoise Roch, the apple producer. “We have to deal with aphids, drought, sunburn… new parasites arrive to us while we already have difficulty containing the old ones. It’s a dangerous melting pot for our profession.”
Research is underway to find ways to combat the pest. But farmers are demanding exemptions to use phytosanitary products (banned by France and the European Union) while they find an alternative against the evil bug.
(Written with Nathalie Fournis and Virginie Beaulieu)
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