FIELD ASSESSEMENT OF FALL ARMYWORM (Spodoptera frugiperda, J.E SMITH) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) DAMAGE ON EARLY SEASON MAIZE

ABSTRACT

The fall army worm is now a challenge to the African continent spreading to over 28 countries just a year after it was reported in 2017. The purpose of this study is to access the Fall Armyworm damage on early season maize. This experiment was carried out on the Teaching and Research Farm of the department of crop science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. The experiment fitted into a split plot design and was repeated three times with four treatments; Oba 98 white hybrid early maturing, Oba Super 2 yellow hybrid early maturing, Local white maize variety, Local yellow maize variety. The data on the plant damage at various stages were collected by destructive sampling at 5 days interval on 5 consecutive maize plants at each sub plot and subjected to ANOVA using Genstat software v.12. The differences among the treatments were compared using Duncan’s multiple tests. There were significant differences in mean values of number of damaged plants between the days after sowing with 20 DAS having the highest number of damaged plants (1.56^a) followed by 40 DAS (1.47^a) and with 5, 65, 75 DAS with the least number of damaged plants (0.71^a). In comparing the mean number of Fall Army Worm damage between the four different maize varieties; V₁ (1.15^a), V₂ (1.14^a), V₃ (1.08^a) and V₄ (1.05^a) there was no significant difference. This suggests a plant age dependent response in relation to damaged plants.