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Crop Protection :: Pest of Sorghum

Shootfly: Atherigona varia soccata

Symptom of damage:

  • The maggot bores inside the stem and cuts the growing point
  • Central shoots dried and produce “dead heart” symptom
  • The infested plant produces side tillers
     
  Dead heart   Red mining   Side tillers
Identification of the pest:
  • Egg: White, cylindrical, distal somewhat flattened
  • Adult: Whitish grey fly

Management:

ETL: 1 egg/plant in 10% of plants in the first two weeks of sowing or 10% dead hearts

  • Take up early sowing of sorghum immediately after the receipt of South West or North East monsoon to minimise the shoot fly incidence.
  • Use seeds pelleted with insecticides
  • Seed treatment with imidacloprid 70 WS @ 10 g/kg of seeds. In case of direct seeding, use increased seed rate upto 12.5 kg/per hectare and remove the shoot fly damaged seedlings at
the time of thinning or raise nursery and transplant only healthy
seedlings.
  • Plough soon after harvest, remove and destroy the stubbles.
  • Set up the TNAU low cost fishmeal trap @ 12/ha till the crop is
30 days old.
  • Spray one of the following for an area of 120 m2 nursery
    • Methyl demeton 25 EC 12 ml/ha
    • Dimethoate 30 EC 12 ml/ha
  • In main field for direct sown crop spray any one of the following
    • Methyl demeton 25 EC 500 ml/ha
    • Dimethoate 30 EC 500 ml/ha
  • Neem Seed Kernel extract 5%
  • Soil application of phorate 10 G 18 kg/ha or carbofuran @ 33.3
kg/ha at the time of sowing
   
  Atherigona varia  
Source of images:
http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/content/sweet-sorghum-shoot-fly
http://www.infonet-biovision.org/default/ct/127/crops

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