Farmers in the Odesa region are battling invasive pests.

In Izmail District, Odesa region, farmers are reporting a mass emergence of invasive insect pests, including tomato and fig moths, which are causing significant damage.

In Odesa region’s Izmail district, farmers are reporting a mass emergence of invasive insect pests, including tomato and fig moths, which are causing significant damage to vegetable and orchard crops. The South Today publication reports this. During an expedition to the Danube Biosphere Reserve, scientists from the State Institution “Institute of Marine Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,” together with experts, discovered new outbreaks of dangerous pests. As Candidate of Biological Sciences Olha Del noted, the tomato leaf-mining moth is spreading rapidly across the region’s fields. Its larvae damage fruit near the stem, causing crops to spoil right on the plants and making them difficult to store. In addition, large-scale outbreaks of the fig moth have been recorded this year in Vylkove and other settlements. It damages not only the leaves but also the figs themselves, which are widely grown for sale. The specialist stresses that these pests are primarily ...