A Novel Approach to the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) for Eldana saccharina Management in South Africa

In South Africa, the stalk borer Eldana saccharina is an indigenous pest that significantly reduces sugarcane yield. Severe economic losses due to E. saccharina in the South African sugarcane industry are estimated at approximately US$60 million annually. Researchers at the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) have researched this topic for many years to develop tools to enable sugarcane growers to manage this pest sustainably according to integrated pest management principles, with the sterile insect technique (SIT) being one of these tools. For more than three decades, the SIT has been used in area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programmes to manage pests of agricultural crops. SIT-based research has been conducted to control dipteran pests; however, controlling lepidopterans has been difficult because of their resistance to irradiation used to sterilize moths. Nevertheless, recent research on the application of SIT has proven successful in controlling lepidopteran pests. This paper provides an overview of the SIT background and studies conducted in South Africa on the SIT programme to control this key pest in sugarcane.