By Pallab GhoshScience
correspondent, BBC News
14 June 2016
Scientists have learned that
cabbage and cauliflower crops could potentially be "devastated" by a
species of moth arriving from continental Europe.
BBC News understands that tens of
millions of diamondback
moths are thought to have come to the UK in the past week.
This is 100 times the number that
arrive in the entire year.
Researchers describe the species
as a "super pest" because it is thought to be resistant to several
insecticides.
An alert has been issued by
researchers at the Rothamsted Research in Harpenden in Hertfordshire.
The Twitter feed @migrantmothUK
reported a two mile cloud of moths on Saturday night near Leominster. One
subscriber to the feed reported that it was like "driving through
rain".
Steve Nash, who administers the
feed, said much worse was yet to come.
"Once the progeny of this
influx arrives in mid-July, numbers could be biblical," he said.
Dr Steve Foster, who works at
Rothamsted Research described how they devastate crops.
"There are swarms of them, a
bit like plagues of locusts - there are so many of them that they seem like a
brown cloud."
Dr Foster and his colleagues
learned of the infestation on Friday. They will study the moths to see if they
can identify an insecticide that can be used against them as a matter of
urgency.
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