Robroy

the link for the fourm is

tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g293920-i5037-Phuket.html

and they wont delete the name

Thanks, but tried & had to fill out a whole lot of bumf - then after doing so they wanted me to "join" (more forms to fill):

I'm a working man & I don't have enough time for that.

Tried Thorntree but their site is down (at least from here, Vientiane).

Anyone else is welcome to re-post my above...........Tours post anywhere.

Put it on Trip Advisor.. in the Phuket forum. Sure you will get more appreciation then here. And lock your bag.

Can't find any trip advisor there - can u give me a link?

On May 29 I got a minibus from Karon Beach to Ao Nang. The company was ....... Tours.

At our first stop - a hotel pick-up a few minutes from Karon - I noticed the driver was taking a long time to 'organise the luggage' at the back. I peered over the back of the back seat. He had unzipped someone's bag, which his hand was deep inside - rifling it.

He jumped about two feet when he saw my face, zipped up the bag, & frantically pretended to be 'arranging the luggage'.

This was the 7.50am ....... Tours minibus from the Paradise Inn at Karon. The bus was marked '.................' on the front window.

The driver was an older guy of about 60, dyed black hair. He was also a bad driver, slewing and jerking all over the road for much of the trip.

Our tickets were sold to us by a Karon Beach tour company. When I called them to tell him about the attempted theft, the sales agent appeared to be mortified. He rang me back later and talked for ten minutes, seeking further details.

Unhappily he revealed that the driver on that trip was the owner of ................. Tours.

BTW, the journey takes 4+ hours, not the advertised 3.

The Reds had a point: Thailand is a very unequal society, with a handful of key families controlling so much of its commercial life - & pocketing the proceeds.

Of course they were used by the odious Thaksin - who must never be allowed to influence Thai polity again.

And they contained their fair share of violent nutters.

But their key point remains valid: Thailand is precipitously unequal.

Unless that is rectified, the Reds will rise again.

That might be the end of the present elite, even the end of civil peace.

Better to make a deal now, to bring about fairness.

Thanks Robroy.

Please keep the info flowing as soon as you get it especially as to where we might be able to get our hands on some lopezi wasps.

Steve

Steve,

Officially I don't think the wasps are available for the general farmer population - some formalities need to be completed first re the smallscale release/study.

But if I were an affected farmer I would identify the release sites around Rayong (perhaps via Dept Ag), go there with a jar or three (and perhaps an aspirator - a device for collecting bugs), & ask the officials if I could take some A. lopezi away with me.

Then, if permission was given, I'd take them to my farm & release them. (Bit of a risk of course: permission may not be given.)

It depends on the scale of damage you face of course. If minor, probably not worth the time & effort.

How's the rain situation? That should be getting rid of the mealybug anyway. In northern Cambodia (adjacent to the south of Isaan) we have had quite a bit of rain, & the mealybug are starting to disappear.

When this El Nino ends the drought should end too - perhaps next month if the averages hold.

The real challenge will be December-ish - when the rain ends. Then the mealybug will breed up bigger than ever. (My goal for Cambodia is to be ready for that with stocks of A. lopezi, which the Thai Ag Dept has very kindly agreed to supply us with.)

Golden rule at SVP: avoid King Power

I can't add much as my knowledge is entirely theoretical (I'm not a farmer).

The El Nino 'should' end in about June, & the rains come in earnest as per normal, and that should in time wash away the mealybugs. (Not overnight.)

At the end of the year when the rains stop the mealybugs will breed up again - at least as big & bad as before.

Nothing works against them other than A. lopezi.

A lopezi has been released in a limited way in the areas I mentioned above, and it is hoped that widescale releases will occur at the start of the next dry season.

I've not heard about ants attending mealybug, so can't comment on that.

Even the big Thai companies (e.g. cassava starch producers) are in cashflow & raw materials trouble because of mealybug right now.

It's a national disaster of sorts. However whilst the political parties slug it out, the entomologists at the Dept of Agriculture are quietly doing their work (importing, testing & releasing A. lopezi) - making this response to mealybug the fastest of any country ever to my knowledge.

Basically, when the A. lopezi reach your area your cassava will probably be saved; & anything you can do to expedite that will obviously save it earlier.

A bit of an update:

Testing in Thailand of the A. lopezi parasitoid wasp (the one that destroys cassava mealybug) is now complete: it's safe! I.e. it doesn't eat anything else.

The A. lopezi were released at Rayong and TTDI, Huay Bong.

These were small scale releases, and now that the wasp has passed the safety tests it will probably be approved for widescale release.

Even from the small scale releases it should spread eventually to a mealybug infestation near you. But the widescale releases will expedite that greatly - when they come, which I'm guessing will be by the start of the next dry season. (The ideal time for widescale release.)

The rains, when they come, will wash away most of the mealybugs - until the next dry season that is, when they will breed up again.

That brings us to this:

I'm not sure if anyone realises it, but SE Asia is in the grip of an El Nino climate event since mid-2009.

This probably accounts for the low rainfall, and the extreme heat we are experiencing right now.

El Nino events typically last 12 months, and this one is due to start decaying any time now:

http://iri.columbia.edu/climate/ENSO/curre.../QuickLook.html

If that happens (they occasionally go for up to 18 months) we should be on track for a 'normal' June, or at least a 'normal' July.

I'm not sure if anyone realises it, but SE Asia is in the grip of an El Nino climate event since mid-2009.

This probably accounts for the low rainfall, and the extreme heat we are experiencing right now.

El Nino events typically last 12 month, and this one is due to start decaying any time now:

http://iri.columbia.edu/climate/ENSO/curre.../QuickLook.html

If that happens (they occasionally go for up to 18 months) we should be on track for a 'normal' June, or at least July.

"The horror of mob rule..."

"These acts have reduced the status of the red-shirt leaders from that of campaigners for democracy - being used as a cloak - to that of terrorists and perpetrators of treason."

I don't think hype & overkill helps the case against the redshirts much.

It's true that people have thrown bombs (terrorism), but this hasn't been the guys in the streets, and we don't know that the two groups are connected. And even if they were, you still could not direct a charge of 'terrorism' against the street protestors.

Sane language is a part of the way out of this mess.

Does the above pic look familiar to those of you who have mealybug?

Also, I'm trying to get some idea of the extent of mealybug's spread through the Isaan region.

One poster said it was in Rayong right in the south, another that it was in Chayapoum roughly in the middle; and the CIAT scientists who came out in Feb found it right through the Korat area in the mid-north.

That's about a 600 km north-south spread. Anyone care to fill in some details? For example is there anyone to the very far north, or as far west as Petchaburi, who has the mealybug? What about around Nahkon Phanom in the north-east near the Lao border?

(I can confirm it's the the east as far as (and beyond) the Cambodian border - around the Aranyaprathet area on your side.)

There is no government data on the extent of the spread, so some info on this would help put together a picture.

In Cambodia, rains are already starting to wash the mealybug away (as they do). We've already had 2 big downpours. When the rainy season begins properly, it should largely disappear - until the next dry season. But it is essential to get the A. lopezi parasite established, otherwise mealybug will come back again bigger than ever.

Best time is before the rainy season begins; second-best is when the next dry season begins.

Here is a pic of what I assume is A. lopezi: http://www.iita.org/medialib/displayimage....=82&pos=244

(It's not named, but the website is that of IITA, the org that found & dispersed A. lopezi in Africa.)

Attached is a pic of the 'pink cassava mealybug' that is now ravaging Isaan, courtesy of the Thai Dept of Agriculture.

(I assume this is the classical cassava mealybug, A. manihoti, & have sought to confirm this.)

I'm sorry for the slight lack of certainty: it's a hard time to get info out of people right now, as they're all out in the field.

An update:

Cassava mealybug is now in 100,000 rai of land in Thailand.

From November 2009, the parasitoid wasp which kills the mealybug - A. lopezi - has been released in cassava fields near the Rayong Field Crop Centre.

Harvest estimates are down to 22.21 million tones for the 2009-2010 harvest, from an earlier forecast of 27.76m. That's a 20% drop.

A. lopezi has been tested with 10 Thai insect species: honey bee larvae, 2 species of lacewing larvae, 2 species of ladybird beetle larvae, 3 species of mealybugs found on cassava, diamondback moth, and rice moth. It only attacked the cassava mealybug (which is one of the '3 species of mealybugs found on cassava', & is the species causing all the trouble at present).

A. lopezi doesn't work well on unmulched sandy loam soils.

Slightly scatty data, but that's all I can get out of people as of today: Thailand's few entomologists are out in the field trying to fight the mealybug, & not spending much time in the office writing emails to me.

If A. lopezi has only been released in Rayong to date (as it seems), that means it could take 2-4 years to spread throughout Isaan (at a slightly wild guess - I'm going on the African figures). Though of course the extra rearing stations should come onstream well befor then, which will speed things up.

It seems A. lopezi is breeding fast in Rayong (enough have bred in the fields up for 6000 to be collected for a second breeding program), so anyone desperate enough could go there and ask a farmer if he can get some from his field. You'd need minimum 60-120, and to trasnport them pretty quickly in an aerated jar with some sugar to keep them alive for the trip, so fas as I understand.

Knonowan: You're right, of course dish detergent etc is fine, I'm sure. It's insecicide that kills A. lopezi & is thus counterproductive.

An email last night from one of the mealybug experts:

[The mites he refers to are the cassava green mite, red mites, & various others. CBB = cassava bacterial blight. All these are happening in different parts of SEA presently, & are probably on the way to eastern Thailand & western Cambodia. It seems that most can be successfully guarded against or beaten, but that's another post..]

"A reason for recent pests outbreaks may be attributed to a warmer climate or more prolonged dry periods. Both mites and mealybugs are dry season pests and populations are reduced during the rainy seasons often giving farmers a sense of false security.

CBB is more of a rainy season problem, especially where you have significant differences between day and night temperatures. The worst cases of CBB that I have seen in my 36 years working with cassava was in Vietnam in November of last year. Climatologists are indicating that the SE Asia region will have warmer temperatures and perhaps also longer dry periods. This could increase pest problems.

An additional problem is that the varieties being grown in the region have little or no resistance to these disease and pest problems. When it comes to pest problems on cassava Asian countries have been on a honeymoon and the honeymoon is over. The Americas and Africa have been dealing with these pest and disease problems for many, many years. We often speculated that the reason that cassava yields were higher in Asia than the Americas and Africa was because Asia did not have any of the major pest and disease problems."

I have heard the same ie when the rains come the bugs will go.

Hi again & thanks for the feedback.

I just want to stress that I've never grown cassava (tho my NGO's factory's growers do). This is all from what I've read (about 80 hours' reading so far), plus communicating with the world cassava mealybug experts at IITA, CIAT, CGIAT, etc, in various parts of the world. One of them is Dr Tony Bellotti, the guy who both identified the cassava mealybug & discovered A. lopezi, in 1981. Another is the chief entomologist at the African IITA centre which breeds A. lopezi (Benin). These are the guys who ended Africa's mealybug plague, so I figure they are worth listening to.

Firstly, yes, the rain is likely to 'collapse' mealybug populations. I do not, however, know how much rain is required (haven't had responses on that yet.) One study says that mealybug populations are at their lowest "at the end of the rainy season" - suggesting it may take a while to wash them out.

Spraying is possibly counterproductive because any A. lopezi mealybug-eating parasite wasps that are coming your way from the various Ag Dept dispersals (A. lopezi) will be killed too.

A. lopezi will likely get to you, wherever you are. It covered the entirety of Africa in 9 years; seems to move at maybe 25 km per month. When it does reach you it is likely to control mealybug levels to the point where they don't threaten the commerciality of your crop any more. I.e. it is very effective.

If you're an a hurry, you could contact the Ag Dept & ask where their 3 Isaan dispersal points are: sorry, I don't know.

The Ag Dept has a website with contacts etc.

(I've sent off a dozen emails about all this: no-one much has replied. Maybe they're all out in the field: this is a national emergency of sorts.)

Here in Cambodia, the mealybugs have just crossed into the northwest (three districts of Banteay Meanchey province), & are starting to eat cassava crops. I am trying to get some A. lopezi from Thailand. Tho the wasp will reach us eventually, may as well kill off the mealybugs now rather than wait for them to eat more cassava & spread further.

I'm happy to pass on anything more I have learned. Good luck.

Thanks - but where was that? Luang P, Vientiane, Savannakhet...?

By tickets I mean air tickets. I assume these will be cheaper to buy in BKK on the way through than in Australia (where they are coming from).

Buy the visas at the bridge - which city are we talking about?

However it is likely we will fly in. And I don't think you can buy a visa at the airport, a la Cambodia, right?

Thanks for your help.

March 1st, it looked like the Egyptian desert on a good day.

You could nearly walk across to NK.

There is a massive hydro scheme being implemented opposite the main riverside area too.

The Chinese reckon the lack of water in the Mekong, is not their fault...... <deleted>!

edit;

"Laos tickets" do you mean visas or travel vouchers?

If you mean Laos visas, buy them at the Bridge in USD @$31.00 each.

Try to have the correct amount. If you tender a 50 or 100 check your change before leaving the cashier's window.

I'm planning a trip down the Mekong thru Laos in late May with my 2 grown, Australian daughters - Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Savannakhet.

However even when I was there in December the Mekong was drying up - low levels, huge sandbanks.

Can anyone take an educated guess as to whether it will still be navigable in late May?

(I don't expect entirely honest answers if I emailed tourism people.)

Question 2: My daughters'd be wiser to buy their Laos tickets on the way through in Bangkok, rather than Australia - cheaper, right?

Thanks!

I think there is just the tiniest, remotest possibility that '16' was a joke.

I scored 16. But that's an improvement over the last red protest last year. things are looking up.

Scoring 16 out of a total possible ten points just emphasizes the level of exageration that yellow Shirt sympathizers are willing to go to. Also shows that they may not be the "intellectuals" they are praported to be. JMHO.

Hi all,

I'm new here. I work for an NGO in Cambodia which owns a cassava starch factory (in Battambang province opposite Sa Kaeo in Thailand).

The Thai mealybug infestation has concerned me since mid-2009 when I first saw it mentioned in the scientific websites (e.g. IITA).

I am not a cassava grower, but can pass on what theoretical knowledge I have - before asking some questions in return.

The only sure way to eliminate mealybug is via 'biological control' - specifically the predator A. lopezi, which eliminated the mealybug problem that had all but destroyed the African cassava industry in the 1980s.

A. lopezi has now been brought into Thailand by the Agriculture Ministry, & is being bred up & dispensed from three Ag Dept sites in Isaan.

More details if needed - but Dept of Ag are your best source.

I would like to hear:

1. How bad the mealybug infestation now is.

2. Whether anyone has used A. lopezi against it, & what the results have been.

Incidentally, we have just this week discovered cassava mealybug in Banteay Meanchey province here - breaking news.

Thanks,

John

Three years ago (after 300,000 people in the north were treated for pulmonary problems from smoke inhalation) he announced that the problem was being caused entirely by Korean barbeque restaurants.

The governor then ordered firetrucks to spray the streets & "moisten" the air, which would allegedly bring rain.

I.e. don't hold your breath for any radical changes.

The rare occasions I've used Windows this has been my story too.

These days I stick to Mac - not perfect but much more problem-free.

I'm reminded of Microsoft every time I attempt to use MS Word - it's always a disaster - which serves to keep me away from the dark side.

A common enough problem.

My solution now is preventive: I never give more than a month's deposit, & I make it a condition of the lease that the deposit pay's the last month's rent.

If they're not happy to do that, I find another apartment.

Cassava is what many grow up that way.

There are quite a few factories in Isaan that buy it to make into starch. (Usually COD.)

Cassava has the advantage that it can be left in the ground ('stored') a year or more past its formal harvest date, in case you're not there, or the market isn't right or whatever.

Coffee?

Clearly the redshirts have at least some support (even in BKK). And clearly the old Thaksin party did do some good things for the poor. (For whatever reason - probably electoral.)

Equally clearly, Thaksin cannot be allowed to ever again influence Thai politics.

I get the impression that the pro-poor policies were and are more popular than Thaksin personally. (He's an ultra-rich thug, after all.)

Would not a compromise solution be for the existing government to introduce a raft of pro-poor reforms? That should satisfy both sides.