R

esidents, farmers and hoteliers are worried about a possible caterpillar plague as the insects began swarming mango plantations, farms and residential areas in Denpasar, Buleleng and Tabanan regencies.

The Denpasar Agricultural Agency received reports of insect swarms in the city on Monday in residential areas in North Denpasar.

“As soon as we received the reports, we deployed field workers to spray insecticide to prevent the caterpillars from spreading to other areas,” agency head Gde Ambara Putra said Tuesday.

He called on people to contact the agency at 0361-721330 or to send a text message to 333 if they saw caterpillars entering their areas.

Hundreds of thousands of caterpillars have also descended on parts of Java over the last two weeks, eating up vegetation and swarming through residential areas.

The swarm, which was first detected in Probolinggo, East Java, has spread to other areas, including Malang in East Java, Kendal in Central Java and Bekasi in West Java.

Bali Agricultural Agency head Made Putra Suryawan said earlier the caterpillar plague had hit three regencies. “The first reports we received were from villages in Buleleng, the island’s most lucrative fruit producing region, on Friday.”

Local farmers and residents reported that thousands of caterpillars had descended on mango plantations and other farms.

Suryawan said this was a different caterpillar species from that in Central and East Java. “The insects look darker than those in Java, which are brown in color,” he said, adding he did not know where they came from.

Ida Bagus Gede Sidharta Putra, the chairman of the Denpasar branch of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants, said he had informed association members to prepare for possible swarms.

“We urged all hotels, restaurants and tourist establishments to carefully check and take care of their gardens and landscaping to ensure that their properties were free from the plague,” Putra said.

I Made Sudana, the dean of Udayana University’s school of agriculture, blamed the caterpillar plague on the excessive use of chemical pesticides and insecticides and global climate change.

“I have collected samples and data from the affected sites in the last three days so we can work with scientists from Bogor Institute of Agriculture to solve this problem.”

The practice by commercial farmers all over Indonesia to use chemical pesticides and insecticides has also been blamed for the plague.

Sudana said extreme weather could be blamed for an increase in caterpillar infestations, which can cause severe allergic reactions.

He said the insect problem was getting worse because of the humidity. As the caterpillar grows it sheds its skin and the tiny hairs float in the air and can cause severe skin reactions.

Apart from destroying crops, the huge volume of feces dropped by the caterpillars contaminates wells and waterways, causing a shortage of drinking water.

Alit Kartarahardja contributes from Singaraja, North Bali