Hi, in the northern part of South Sudan, millipedes are causing serious crop damage to sorghum. They live deep in the ground over dry season and then come up at night in the rainy season. They kill the young sorghum plants. It has been about 6 years since the problem started. And it is getting worse. What options are there to mitigate this pest?
A local agronomist says that carbofuran can control it, but I hate to recommend such a dangerous chemical.
@David_Uhr , @Noah_Elhardt , and @Grace_Brinsfield do you have any thoughts given your experience in Senegal?
First off, the growing of sorghum as a monoculture is not natural or wise, so any variations in the planting scheme will save a lot of grief. Secondly, I know that slugs can be attracted by a night light over a pan of water as shown: Is there a natural attractant, that the millepedes like which could be used in a similar way?
Mike they are a very serious problem in groundnuts as well in South Sudan. Millipedes can pose a significant threat to young sorghum plants, especially in areas like South Sudan where environmental conditions may favor their population growth. Here are some effective strategies to control millipedes and protect young sorghum plants: I pulled this from Chat GPT but you might try a bucket of organic matter and add water and scatter wads of that material at intervals around the field and then just have kids collect them and termites that accumulate there and feed them to the chickens. The systemic insecticide would be a very easy solution. What you can’t get in South Sudan you can get in Kampala if you have a friend that can bus it up to you.
Crop Residue Management
• Clear plant debris: Millipedes often hide and breed in decaying organic matter. Remove crop residues and weeds from the field before planting to reduce their habitat.
• Burn or compost residues: Properly dispose of plant materials to destroy potential breeding sites.
Planting Timing
• Early planting: If millipede activity is high early in the season, delay planting until the millipede population decreases. Alternatively, plant early to allow plants to grow stronger before millipedes become active.
Soil Tillage
• Deep plowing: Plow the soil before planting to disrupt millipede habitats, expose them to predators, and reduce their numbers.
Physical Barriers
• Use seedling collars: Protect young sorghum plants with plastic or metal collars around the base of seedlings to deter millipedes.
• Traps: Set up moist traps (such as damp burlap sacks or wooden boards) to attract millipedes overnight. Collect and destroy them daily.
Biological Control
• Encourage natural predators: Birds, ants, and ground beetles feed on millipedes. Create an environment that attracts these predators.
• Nematodes: Use beneficial nematodes (like Steinernema species) to target millipedes in the soil.
Chemical Control
Seed Treatments
• Insecticidal seed coatings: Treat seeds with systemic insecticides like thiamethoxam or imidacloprid before planting. These protect seedlings during their vulnerable early stages.
Soil Insecticides
• Apply soil granules or drenches: Use products like carbaryl or chlorpyrifos applied to the soil before planting to reduce millipede numbers. Follow local regulations for safe use.
Baits
• Create baits using carbaryl or other approved insecticides. Mix these with moist organic matter (e.g., bran or sawdust) to attract and kill millipedes.
Moisture Management
• Reduce excessive moisture: Millipedes thrive in wet conditions. Avoid over-irrigating fields and ensure proper drainage.
Resistant Varieties
• Plant sorghum varieties that are more resistant to pest damage, as they may be less susceptible to millipede attacks.
Integrated Approach
Combine multiple strategies (cultural, physical, biological, and chemical) for effective and sustainable millipede control. Regular monitoring and prompt action are critical to minimize damage and ensure young sorghum plants survive and thrive.
Hi Stacy, I work at Beersheba Farm in Senegal with Noah and I know Grace as well. David has been here to help us do research against the millipede pressure. While there are steps we can do to mitigate our pressure, we haven’t found a long term sustainable solution. We know they thrive in moist environments so keeping a mulch cover off your field and putting the mulch instead around your field will attract the millipedes away your field where you are growing your crops. However, the mulch serves other valuable purposes including water retention, better infiltration, cooler soil temps, adding to better soil health, etc… and so getting rid of the blanket presents other problems. Millipedes in our region will eat the seeds before they germinate. The ones that do survive the germination stage are often cut at the stems before the stems harden off. If they survive that, the millipedes will still climb the stalks and attack the maize before it matures. I think the best remedy would be to find a predator that would would reduce the millipede population significantly and would be a realistic solution for a local farmer. Sending chickens or ducks into your field may eliminate a few millipedes, but when there are millions and you have a hectare that you are planting, you would need a lot of chickens and ducks (not really a viable solution). The better option would be to figure out what we might be able to treat the seeds or the plant with that would really detour the millipedes. We’ve tried a number of organic options such as neem, tobacco, papaya, milkweed, peppers, etc… It could be that we just haven’t found the right concentration or combination yet. However, finding a good seed/plant treatment would be ideal.
Mike, I feel you pain!
My educated guess is that you are wasting your time with neem and pepper. In fact pepper is generally not very effective against insects based on efficacy studies that have been done. Milkweed is likely only going to be effective against soft bodied insects and I would not waste my time with it on millipedes. I am always baffled as to why people waste time developing organic controls instead of comparing them as per their efficacy to commercially available products. Tobacco is not allowed in certified organic production because it is too poisonous. Yes it is too poisonous and more poisonous LD50 than many of the commercial synthetic products. So does that not beg the question as to people seeking to be organic may be on a wild goose chase, an imaginary pipe dream of no meaning… Rotenone the same and certain plants such as Tephrosia commonly used in organic pest control carry Rotenone which is restricted in certified organic production. I challenge anyone to find anything safer product to use than Insect Growth Regulators which are synthetically produced. So why not take the organic products and the synthetic ones under consideration and make a educated decision as to which is more safe or better which is the best balance of risk verses effectiveness, mitigating loss or managing loss below an economic threshold. We really have to expose the façade of organic production for what is really is, an idea that means nothing relative to risk and safety. And the backlash against GMOs is similar, many types reduce the need for pesticide application, and some types prevent Vitamin A deficiency blindness and death.
Hey,
I agree with Dan on a bunch of things.
It’s true that carbofuran is particularly dangerous… And was banned some years ago in the USA and other countries but it would of been in wide use when many of us were younger.
Are there other chemicals available that would do the trick? Could you ask the local agronomist for alternative products that are available there.
I would highly recommend:
-appropriate ground prep if affordable and available.
-using a seed treatment - this is standard in conventional agriculture in the West, generally cheap and easy. In West Africa, one can treat 1 hectare of seed for about 50 cents USD.
-spraying a product to kill them… As it sounds like infestation levels will not be satisfactorily controlled just with seed treatments. Whether Carbofuran (carefully, knowing the risk) or a different one. Here you have choices… Many in the West would spray products under the plant line by using using a sprayer that sprays product down the slot while planting.
If planting by hand you could spot spray the planting holes before adding the seed.
I am not “anti” conventional agriculture. Thanks to seed treatments and chemical products many countries can feed their populations and even export food.
I encourage anyone working in agriculture to ask them self if it isn’t hypocrisy to eat a bowl of cornflakes, enjoy popcorn during a movie, oatmeal in the morning, pizza or fast food when travelling and in general not only eat organic and then encouraging other who struggle to feed their families to only rely on organic methods.
In other words I encourage people to use the tried, tested successful techniques used in many countries to help people. Let’s share and export what works best.
Organic many not be a luxury people can afford. Most food in developed countries - and certainly anything not labelled as organic served in restaurants and the like will have been grown using crop protection products.
Corn and soy farmers in the States and other more developed countries can achieve amazing yields compared to developing nations, let’s not knock conventional farming. A challenge for development workers is often to know, given the restraints and differences in context, labour, finances, tools what things are the most economic and beneficial to promote or solve a problem. Give the most bang for the buck, acceptable, achievable…
May God give you wisdom as you help them with millipedes!
P.s do they grow millet too? Sorghum is often more susceptible to root pests as it has fewer but larger roots than millet. Millet also tillers more and so can compensate for damage to stalks or heads more. Peanuts are particularly susceptible as they have 1 main taproot and if something’s comes along and munches on it they will generally die.
Do they practice crop rotation? Encouraging diversification might be a thing. You know, don’t put all your eggs in one basket…
Ecclesiastes 11:2
Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.
One other thing you could try is to look up sampling techniques to guage their numbers.
Use a seed treatment regardless but spraying often depends on their numbers being over a certain threshold (which wouldn’t likely exist in your context! So you could make one).
If I recall correctly for wireworm one can put out a wet burlap sack in the evening and go lift it up the next morning to guage if they are a problem before planting.
You could see if sampling techniques like that exist for millipedes.
Your really up a creek without a paddle for millipedes getting for peanuts if you are looking for an organic treatment. However, you might consider the pyrethrin from the white chrysanthemum flower, or tephrosia which has rootenone or the sap from Sodom Apple (Calotropus procera). I have used the sap from Sodom Apple when protecting rats from eating my avocado seeds. They did not touch them–worked great LOL. They should not eat the seed if treated with any of those organic products for corn and sorghum. It is really not cool that you are using tobacco as if it is an organic product since it was phased out due to its danger to humans. We developed safer neonicinoids like Imidacloprid because tobacco was so unsafe a product. It is systemic but on a large scale it can affect bees of course.
