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Crop Protection :: Pests of Guava
 

Fruit Borers
Congethes (=Dichocrocis) punctiferalis

Symptoms of damage
  • Caterpillar bores into young fruits
  • Feeds on internal contents (pulp and seeds)
  • Dry up and fall off in without ripening

Identification of pest
  • Larva - Pale greenish with pink tinge and fine hairs with dark head
  • Adult - Yellowish moth with black spots on the wing and body.

Management
  • Collect and destroy damaged fruits
  • Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts
  • Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults
  • Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.

Fruit borers: Deudorix (Virachola) isocrates 

Symptoms of damage
  • Caterpillar bores into young fruits
  • Feeds on internal contents (pulp and seeds)

Identification of pest
  • Larvae - dark brown, short and stout, covered with short hairs
  • Adult - blusih brown butterfly. Female – V shaped patch on forewing

Management
  • Collect and destroy damaged fruits
  • Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts
  • Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults
  • Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.

Fruit borer, Rapala varuna

Symptoms of damage
  • Caterpillar found on flower buds and fruit

Identification of pest
  • Adult – metallic red coloured butterfly

Management
  • Collect and destroy damaged fruits
  • Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts
  • Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults
  • Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.

Guava fruit fly: Bactrocera diversus

Symptoms of damage
  • Adults and maggots attack semi – ripe fruits
  • Oviposition punctures on fruits
  • Maggots destroy and convert pulp into a bad smelling
  • Discoloured semi liquid mass

Identification of pest
  • Adult - Brown or dark brown with hyaline wings and yellow legs

Management
  • Collect and destroy fallen and infested fruits
  • Summer ploughing to expose pupa
  • Use methyl eugenol lure trap (25/ha) to monitor and kill adults of fruit flies
  • Prepare methyl eugenol and malathion 50 EC mixture at 1:1 ratio( take 10 ml mixture/ trap)
  • Inseciticides: malathion 50 EC 0.05%
  • Bait spray combining molasses or jaggery 10g/l and one of the insecticides,
    • fenthion 100 EC 1ml/l
    • malathion 50 EC 2 ml/l
    • dimethoate 30 EC 1ml/lit, two rounds at fortnight interval before ripening of fruits
    • Field release of parasitoids such as
      • Opius compensatus
      • Spalangia philippinensis,
      • parasitoid wasp Diachasmimorpha kraussi
Diachasmimorpha kraussi

Bark eating caterpillars, Indarbella sp

Symptoms of damage
  • Young trees may succumb to the attack.
  • Caterpillars bore into the trunk or junction of branches.
  • Presence of gallery made out of silk and frass.
  • Caterpillars remain hidden in the tunnel during day time come out at night and feed on the bark.

Identification of pest
  • Adult is stout yellowish –brown moth with brown wavy markings on the forewings.
  • Males are smaller than the females.

Management
  • Remove and destroy dead and severely affected branches of the tree
  • Remove alternate host, silk cotton and other hosts
  • Swab Coal tar + Kerosene @ 1:2 or Carbaryl 50 WP 20 g / l of water on the basal portion of the trunk up to 3 feet height
  • Scraping the loose bark to prevent oviposition by adult beetles.
  • Padding with tree soaked in absorbent cotton.
  • If infestations are severe then apply the copper oxychloride paste on the trunk of the tree.
  • Hook out the grub from the bore hole
  • After apply monocrotophos 36 WSC 10 to 20 ml/ hole
  • One celphos tablet (3 g aluminum phosphide) per hole
  • Apply carbofuran 3G 5 g per hole and plug with mud.

SAP FEEDERS
Tea mosquito bug, Helopeltis antonii 

Symptoms of damage
  • Nymphs and adults make punctures on petiole, tender shoots and fruits
  • Brownish – black necrotic patches develop on foliage
  • Elongate streaks and patches develop on shoots
  • Corky scab formation on fruits

Identification of pest
  • Nymph and adult: Reddish brown, elongate bug with black head, red thorax
  • black and white abdomen

Management
  • Collect and destroy the damaged plant parts
  • Insecticides: malathion 50 EC  0.2%   at bimonthly interval at the time of flowering

Green ScaleCoccus viridis 

Symptoms of damage
  • Nymphs and adults suck the sap from leaves
  • Yellowing of leaves.

Identification of pest
  • Nymph: Pale lemon yellow.
  • Adult – green colour, flat and oval shaped soft scale
Coffee- Green coffee scale (Coccus viridis) on the back of a leaf. Note the black sooty mould

Management
  • Prune and destroy the infested shoots at initial stage of infestation.
  • Spray monocrotophos 1ml/lit
  • After two weeks release 20 predator beetles viz.,C. montrouzieribeetle per tree.
  • Encourage parasitoids viz., Aneristis sp Coccophgagus cowperi, C. bogoriensis

Tailed mealy bugFerrisa virgata 

Symptoms of damage
  • Premature dropping of fruit.


Identification of pest
  • Nymph - Yellowish to pale white.
  • Adult - Females apterous, long, slender covered with white waxy secretions

Management
  • Triozhophos 2 ml+ neem oil 5 ml/1, phosalone 35 EC 1.5 ml+ neem oil 5 ml/1.
  • Release Cryptolaemous montrouzieri beetles @ 10/tree.

Spiraling whiteflyAleurodicus dispersus

Symptoms of damage
  • Nymphs and adults suck the sap from leaves
  • Honey dew - development of sooty mould fungus
  • Yellowing of leaves.
  • Dropping of affected leaves.

Identification of pest
  • Nymph - short glass like rods of wax along the sides of the body
  • Adult - Powdery white, active during early morning hours.

Management
  • Field sanitation

  • Removal of host plants

  • Installation of yellow sticky traps

  • During heavy infestation - application of imidacloprid 200SL at 0.01%

or triazophos 40EC at 0.06%

  • Spray neem oil 3% or NSKE 5%

  • Release of predators viz., Coccinellid predator, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri

  • Release of parasitoids viz., Encarsia haitierrsis and E.guadeloupae

 


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