Burning coals may be dumped into the rat tunnels. Farmers also protect against porcupines by digging pits around enset plants so that it is difficult for the animals to get in or to climb up and get away. In some areas, farmers organize themselves on a village basis to hunt wild pests with sticks, spears, and machetes. Insects have been considered a minor problem in enset cultivation. However, over the last several growing seasons, mealy bugs have been identified as a serious problem in certain regions.
Mealy bugs are soft-bodied insects that feed on the corm and roots.
Because they live underground, their damage often goes unnoticed until serious loss has occurred. As they are slow moving insects, mealy bugs are controlled with methods similar to those used against diseases such as bacterial wilt. Weeds can cause greatly reduced plant growth while enset plants are small, i.e., during the sucker stage and for one or two years after the first transplant. The total land area used for production during these stages is usually relatively small compared to the farm size, and therefore weeding can be accomplished with available labor. As the enset plants become larger, the perennial leaf canopy and leaf litter on the soil surface prevent most weed growth.