‘Earthworms’ destroying Benguet farms

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Researchers of the Benguet State University (BSU) are studying a "black pest" that looks like an earthworm which has been destroying some farmlands in Kabayan town.

The annelids, which farmers call bileg, do not actually feed on crops. However, they burrow into the soil when the rice paddies are irrigated. Water flows through their burrowed paths, causing the paddies to dry up, sag and erode, eventually adversely affecting the crops.

Moreover, according to farmers’ accounts reported by BSU’s Bobby Grande, the liquid that spurts from the bileg when its body is cut up is believed to cause blindness.

As observed, the soft-bodied slitherers alter the soil’s quality and sustainability, resulting in low and poor yield.

"It was also learned that farmers even used insecticides to kill the bileg but they failed," Grande said.

A bileg has an average length of 12 to 14 inches when fully stretched and has a cylindrical measurement of two to 2.5 centimeters.

Confronted by the problem spawned by the "earthworms," the Kabayan municipal council has passed a resolution requesting the BSU, headed by its president, Dr. Cipriano Consolacion, to undertake a research on how to control or eradicate them.

In response, the BSU Quick Response Team, composed of Drs. Rogelio Colting, Tessie Merestela, Rosana Mula and Erlinda Bestre, Grande and Gabriel Pacio of the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Administrative Region, conducted an ocular inspection of some of the affected areas.

They collected samples of bileg, interviewed some affected farmers, and were briefed by municipal agriculture officer William Antero.

As to the worm’s origin, Grande reported, one farmer narrated that years back, a man from the country’s upper north went to Kabayan with a handful of bileg to use as bait in fishing.

The man, the farmer recalled, threw some of the unused bileg into the river. It was suspected that they thrived in villages downstream.

At that time, too, some farmers could not afford to buy a carabao for use in plowing their ricefields, so they borrowed the work animals of their neighbors. This practice was suspected to have brought bileg eggs to other areas.