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Termites: Odontotermes spp
Symptoms of damage
- Wilting of plants in patches.
- Bore holes on pods and damage soft tissues causing scarification.
- Damage weaken the shells and make them liable to grow Aspergillus flavus that produces aflotoxins.
Identification of the pest
- Egg: White or light yellow Colored and kidney shaped.
- Workers: Small (4 mm), wingless and have soft white body with a brown head.
- Soldiers: Whitish, wingless, larger than the workers with brownish head and strong jaws.
- Adult: Cream coloured tiny insects resembling ants with dark coloured head.
- Social insects, live in termatoria with distinct castes, workers, king and queen.
- Endemic in red and sandy soils
Management
- Summer ploughing and digging the termatoria and destroy the mounds in the field to expose termites to sun and predators.
- Apply well rotten organic manure to reduce termite incidence.
- Irrigate the crop frequently at severe infestation.
- Harvest the groundnut crop at right maturity to reduce the chances of termite damage to pods.
- Destruction of plant residues and debris in termite attacked fields after harvest.
- Apply thiamethoxam 75 SG@ @ 50 g/ac
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Termite |
Damaged plant |
Termite damaged groundnut pods |
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