Yangju City Issues 'Armyworm Alert' and Launches Guidance Campaign

Yangju City's Agricultural Technology Center (Lee Cheon-hak) conducted surveillance on armyworms from June 19 to 21 in the Gwangjjeok-myeon and Baekseok-eup areas and detected outbreak areas, prompting the issuance of an armyworm alert and immediate guidance campaign for pest control measures.

The armyworm is a harmful insect that causes significant damage by rapidly consuming leaves and stems of corn, forage, rice and other crops from mid-June to early July.

Particularly this year, with higher temperatures compared to the previous year and lower rainfall creating favorable conditions for armyworm larvae, a focused control period has been set from June 20 to 30, with strengthened surveillance and pest control efforts centered on key locations in each township and town.

Meanwhile, Park Han-sik, director of the Crops and Livestock Division, emphasized, "Since armyworms are causing considerable damage to the leaves and stems of gramineous crops such as forage and rice in a short period of time, farmers must regularly inspect areas around their fields and apply appropriate pesticides immediately when larvae are discovered in order to minimize crop damage."