The aquatic oligochaete worm, Branchiura sowerbyi Beddard, feeds on decomposing organic matter in the sediment in freshwater. This aquatic worm is not a pest and reported as a beneficial organism in rice fields. However during recent years in the northern region of Iran, some farms with a high density population of this aquatic worm have problems. In these farms after a while, the overall field gets thinned and farmers have to do re-transplanting. It seems that the high density population of this worm in the field has negative effects on young seedlings roots. These seedlings are going to die after a while and cause thinning in the field. Are these negative effects really caused by B. sowerbyi? Are there rice fields in other areas with the same problem? What would be a non-chemical solution to reduce these negative effects in these farms? We are searching for other possible reasons and a solution and we would be grateful for any type of helpful advice.
You may want to refer to this journal.
"The Effect of Five Herbicides on the Aquatic Oligochaete Branchiura sowerbyi Bedd" by IMAM, Mostafa; GHABBOUR, Samir I
Thank you so much for the paper. I read it and it was so helpful. However, herbicides that are mentioned in this paper are not using in rice fields anymore and some of them such as 2-4-D is banned. So are there any new formulations in herbicides that would be effective? or is there any other method that recently used for subsiding the negative effect of this worm? I would be grateful if you send me more information.
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