ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of weeding on the prevalence of FAW larval, damage and severity of damage on maize (Zea mays). The experiment was carried out in the Teaching and Research farm of Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, during the late cropping season of 2023. Three treatments namely: WD0 (no weeding), WD2 (weeding every two weeks) and WD3 (weeding every three weeks) were fitted into a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) replicated three times with treatment plots measuring 3 × 2m separated by 1m.  Data was analyzed using one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results from the experiment showed that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in FAW larval abundance although numerically, weeding2 had the highest mean abundance (10.86 larvae).On the influence of the treatments on damage and severity, there was no significant difference although WD2 and WD3 recorded the highest number of damaged plants (5.02 plants) and the damage severity was highest (5.75) in WD3. The weeding regimes in this study did not positively influence the VFAW larval abundance and number of damaged plants.