Symptoms of damage

• Caterpillar bores into young fruits and feeds on internal contents (pulp and seeds)
• Fruit rotting and dropping

Identification of pest

• Larvae: Dark brown, short and stout, covered with short hairs
• Adult: Bluish brown butterfly, female has V shaped patch on forewing

Management

ETL: 5 eggs/plant

• Collect and destroy damaged fruits
• Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts
• Endemic areas - grow less susceptible varieties
• Cover the fruit with polythene bags when the fruits are up to 5 cm
• Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults
• Malathion 50 EC 0.1% or two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set
• Flowering stage - spray NSKE 5% or neem formulations 2 ml/l
• Apply dimethoate 30 EC 1.5 ml/l
• Release Trichogramma chilonis at one lakh/acre