Assessments of Termites’ Impact on Vegetation, Crops And Buildings in Lalokile District, Kellem Wollega Zone, Western Ethiopia
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Date
2018-08-08
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Termites are social insects and can cause serious damage to buildings, forestry and wide range of crops including cash crops such as maize, wheat, groundnuts, sorghum, teff, and rice; and pastures, any material that incorporates cellulose from paper to building and fungi to fire trees. Termites also damage dam, and electrical faults in large cables in many of their distribution areas. The current status of termite damage on vegetation, crops and building was studied in Lalokile district, to assess the impacts of termites on vegetation, crops and buildings.Lalokile district is located in KellemWollaga Zone Western Ethiopia. It is 535 km away from Addis Ababa. Questionnaires andfield observationwere used for generating data. The damage that termite caused to different vegetation and the level at which the plants were damaged by termites were significantly different, andit was observed that large numbers of plants were damaged by termites in unprotected land than in protected. It was also investigated thatlarge proportion the study area land was seriously damaged by termites. There was serious termitedamage to crops that were resulted in annual yield loss of- after termite occurrence.It was observed that termites were causing fewer problems to vegetations aroundresidences, while vegetations far from residences were observed to be seriously damaged due to fertilities of the soil around residences. In the area of higher population of livestock there was serious termite damage to the land. The impacts of termite were not only confined to vegetation and crops but also it was observed to cause serious damage to houses and fences at their late age (15-30 years) after construction. Cultural method of termites controlsuch as: Queen Removal, flooding, smoking and nest destructions were observed to be practiced by majority of the study area peoples. In this area deforestation was the main reason to aggravate termite problem. Generally, the study area was seriously damaged by termites and causing different socio economic problems to the community, so to overcome these problems, the farmers should prevent and stop deforestation and overgrazing, developments agents should teach farmers to use different methods of termite control together and termite repellent plants should be planted in all lands to repel termites.
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Termites, Field Observation, Damaged Land, Cultural Methods, Yield Loss