Cochineal Infestation Spreads to Northern Morocco’s Prickly Pear Crops

The cochineal insect is now limitless. After taking over prickly pear plantations in the center and south, the mealy cochineal, commonly called the white cochineal, is present in the north of the country. The news is reported by the Arabic-language daily Al Akhbar, which specifies that the insect has infested the cacti in the provinces of the North and more precisely the douars of Tnine de Sidi el Yamani and Had Al Gharbia, Hajrat Nhal, Sakdala, Daidate and Kanoua, in the Tangier region.

As soon as they were informed, the services of the Ministry of Agriculture and Maritime Fisheries mobilized to stop the flood. Indeed, several families living essentially on this fruit have lost their seasonal production and had to burn hundreds of cacti due to the invasion of the cochineal insects.

The appearance of these insects in the plantations of the north is due to the seeds used by the farmers, which come from other environments affected by the insect, a practice nevertheless prohibited by the Ministry of Agriculture. But also, the use and disinfection of plastic crates instead of wooden ones, before their loading on the trucks. And finally, the many shuttles carried out by the vehicles transporting the fruit from a contaminated region to a healthier one, notes the same source.