Management Approaches:
Host Plants

Introduction

In order to effectively prevent or reduce stem-borer damage to our cereal crops, a detailed knowlegde and proper understanding of the potential host plants of stem borers is essential.  We need to know, if possible, their original or natural hosts, their possible host ranges and the hosts on which they develop most successfully.  We can assume that the original hosts of all cereal stem borers were wild grasses, but which wild grasses in particular and whether the original hosts are still present in the areas where particular borer species are pests are often not known and merit further study.

In Africa, the most important cereal or graminaceous crops are maize, millets, rice and sorghum, cereals whose history and biology are extremely diverse, but an understanding of which is essential in the development of control strategies for borers.  Within the cereal/borer complex in Africa are indigenous and introduced cereals, as well as both indigenous and introduced stem borers.  The following account is a summary of the history, distribution and importance of the main cereal crops grown in sub-Saharan Africa and some of the associated islands, in relation to African cereal stem borers.  Alternative hosts of cereal stem borers are also summarized.