Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Exotic Plague Advances

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CARACAS, Jul 7 2008 (IPS) - The “ácaro rojo” (Raoiella indica), an insect measuring just 0.3 millimeters, has devastated several hundred hectares planted with coconut palms on Venezuela's northwest and northeast coast, reports the government's autonomous agricultural health service. “It gathers on the leaves of the palm, sucking its sap, weakening the foliage and obstructing production of the fruit,” Layla Vera, of the service's office in the northeastern state of Sucre, told Tierramérica.

Dominican agronomist Juan Castellanos noted that this insect, originating in Asia and Africa, reached the Americas via the Caribbean island of Martinique in 2003, and from there spread to Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guadalupe, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela and the southeastern U.S. state of Florida.