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.
            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.