​​Identification of Insect Pests of Maize (Zea mays L.) in Girar Jarso and Hidebu Abote Districts, North Shewa Zone, Oromia, Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Maize is the most important staple food crops in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, predominantly produced and consumed directly by the smallholder farmers. Insect pests are the serious pests causing yield loss of maize in field at different growth stages. Methods: The field survey was carried out during 2019-2020 crop growing season. Purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the districts based on the potential producers of maize and a random sampling technique was used to select the kebeles and the stakeholders. Result: The major identified insect pests of maize in the two districts were grass hopper (Hieroglyphus nigrorepletus), maize leaf hopper (Cicadulin ambila), maize pod borers (Helicoverpa armigera, Etiella), maize stem borers (Chilopartellus Swinhoe), Hairy caterpillar (Amsacta albistriga Walker), Black cut worm (Agrotis ipsilon Hufnagal), Maize leaf Aphid (Rhopalosiphum maidis Fitch), Army worm (Mythimna separata Walker), Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), Pink stem borer (Sesamiain ferens Walker), Corn Earworm (Helicoverpa zea Boddias), Chafer beetle (Chiloloba acuta Wiedmann), Shoot bug (Peregrinus maidis Ashamed), White grub (Holotrichia consanguinea) and shoot fly (Atherigona soccata).