BEWARE! The plant or seeds you have smuggled into the island on your last trip overseas could be the reason for that new pest that is attacking your plants.
This is the caution from agriculture officer in the plant pathology department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Michael James, who said at least one new pest on a popular plant could possibly be traced to the illegal entry of plants in the last few years.
James was speaking as he conducted a sick plant clinic hosted by the ministry, at the Barbados Horticultural Society’s annual Flower Show at Balls Plantation, Christ Church, yesterday. He said the new pest had been attacking crotons in gardens around the island.
“I would think that one of the ones [pests] we have seen in the last couple of years that probably would have been brought in due to this type of thing would be the Croton Scale because we had not seen the Croton Scale before,” he revealed.
The Croton Scale looks like a green growth on the plant, which produces excess amounts of what plant experts call “honey dew”, which in turn develops into sooty mould fungus.
The pest, while not killing the plant, retards its growth by reducing the plant’s ability to photosynthesise sunlight.
“That is one we can definitely point at and say that did not enter through legal means because we were seeing the crotons growing in Barbados for years and we have never seen this problem,” he said.
Since the pest was first discovered, it has since spread to sour sop, sugar apples, mangoes and other trees.
This, James added, meant fruit tree owners now faced the additional expense of treating trees that would not normally be a concern.
The problem, he said, was that it was difficult to prevent illegal entry of small clippings.
“You can’t really stop anybody from cutting off a piece of a plant, jucking in their pocket and bringing it in. All we can do is to keep on hammering home the point that it can have an effect not only on your plant, but on Barbados in general, if you bring in a plant that has a pest problem that is not in Barbados,” James said.
In addition, he said all kinds of plants – ornamentals, flowering plants – made their way illegally into the island. It is also illegal to bring in seeds without a permit.
The agriculture officer said that anyone who wanted to import plants should first seek an import permit from the Ministry of Agriculture. (HLE)
