Farmers requested to inform of yellow-spotted grasshopper invasions

The Department of Agriculture has requested the farmers to inform the details of any yellow-spotted grasshopper invasions in their respective areas.

Information can be directed to the Agriculture Department through the hotline for agricultural advisory service - 1920.

The farmers can also inform the Deputy Director of Agriculture of their respective provinces, the Regional Deputy Directors of Agriculture, Agriculture Instructor in the relevant area or Mahaweli field officers regarding the grasshopper invasions.

The Department says the crop-ravaging insects found in Mawathagama are not desert locusts – the short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae with periodical swarming phase.

These yellow-spotted grasshoppers are not alien to Sri Lanka, the Agriculture Department added.