The effects of Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) damage on stalk yield components in field trials are reported. The experiment design involved reducing pest pressure with an insecticide to provide undamaged stalks or applying artificial inoculation techniques to elevate pest pressure to obtain damaged stalks for comparison. At harvest, trial results showed lower biomass, lower sucrose and higher fibre content in stalks that had been infested early in the season when compared with stalks that were infested during the maturation stage of the crop cycle.