Tunisia- Cochineal insect: Phytosanitary Authority confirms coastal states have become infested

Speaking to Tunisie Numérique, Director General of Plant Health at the Ministry of Agriculture, Rabah Hajlawi, confirmed that the spread of the cochineal insect was registered in the first phase in the governorates of Mahdia, Sousse, Monastir and Sfax. It reached as far as Kairouan, revealing that in a second stage, its spread was documented in other governorates such as Sidi Bouzid, Siliana and Zaghouan, but to a less severe extent.

He clarified that the impacted areas are the coastal states, and they have become areas nearly out of control, as the prickly pear trees will disappear. Treatment will be employed only to stop the inconvenience of citizens and the spread of this insect, which is similar to the “prickly pear”.

As for the other governorates, which are production areas, the situation has been brought under control, and operations to treat the new hotspots have been conducted according to a protocol that was drawn up by the ministry and transmitted to the regional delegations so that they can implement it.

Our speaker pointed out that a licensed medicine is operated, and that there are prevention methods to prevent the spread of this insect and stop it from reaching the production areas, which are Kasserine and Nabeul. Work is furthermore underway on a scientific program for biological resistance, within which types of predatory insects such as the ladybug will be imported.

The Director General of Plant Health at the Ministry of Agriculture underlined the existence of several major errors and the promotion of false images of the spread of this insect in other countries and the marketing of its presence in Tunisia, expressing that the cochineal insect only attacks prickly pear and cannot contaminate humans or animals, but it causes some concern because it resembles a “Culicidae” in residential neighbourhoods near prickly pear trees, and the Ministry is in the process of treating it.